We have now passed under review many of the aspects of the truth touching the children of God. There is yet one other thing to be considered, and that is their future condition and their future home. We may take as the basis of our consideration of this part of our subject a passage in Romans 8. There we read, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren” (vss. 28- 29).
Two distinct though connected things are taught in this scripture. The first is, that God’s thought has been from all eternity to fashion all His children after the image of His Son—the Son, who, while as becomes His person and dignity, He is ever to retain the preeminence, is yet the model of every child of God. This wondrous and eternal thought serves, as perhaps few other scriptures do, to show out the exceeding riches of God’s grace, especially when we remember the character of the material out of which this surprising result is to be obtained. It explains also the whole secret of redemption. It is quite true that God in His mercy and grace has taken us up with the view of accomplishing His purpose, but it is also to be remembered, and indeed always to have the first place in our thoughts, that the supreme motive of God’s grace in redemption, as unfolded in His eternal counsels, is the glory of His beloved Son. The children of God are here in the scene which this scripture unfolds, but its central figure is Christ—Christ as the Firstborn among many brethren. The marvel is, that God, in His condescension and love, has associated us with His only begotten Son in those counsels for His glory. Associated with Him now—for we are His joint-heirs—we shall be associated with Him throughout eternity; for if He is the Firstborn, He deigns to call us His brethren. The family were not complete without Him, nor, blessed be His name, without us. Hence He said to Mary, “Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.”
Another thing may be observed as illustrative of the true character of redemption. Christ—and Christ in glory—it is clear from this scripture, was ever before the mind of God, both as the ground and object of His counsels. The children of God were not to be conformed to the image of Adam, but to the image of Christ. The introduction of the “seed of the woman” was thus no after-thought, no mere means to meet and remedy the mischief which Satan had succeeded in bringing into this creation through the folly of Adam, but rather the exhibition of the secret of God’s heart for His own glory, as for that also of His beloved Son. First and foremost in this world, Adam, as the responsible man, was brought upon the scene; but the result only proved how incapable he was of sustaining the weight of God’s glory—albeit he was surrounded with everything to favor his dependence and obedience, everything to maintain the honor of Him whose vicegerent he was. He failed, and, as we know, failed disastrously; and thereon God proved, as always, that wherein the enemy had dealt proudly He was above him, for Satan’s apparent triumph was but the occasion of the revelation of the last Adam—the Man, not of responsibility, but of God’s counsels, in and by whom God would accomplish all His purposes to His own eternal praise and glory. And this Second Man, God’s Son, is He to whom all the children of God are to be conformed, that throughout eternity they may “shine in His reflection fair” and thus forever redound to His glory, as also to His through whose counsels it is they have been redeemed.
The second thing that lies in this scripture is, that even now God is working towards this end. In all His present dealings with us, in all our varied experiences, in all the trials, sorrows, dangers, and persecutions that attend our path, God is leading us, and using all these seeming adversities, as the sculptor employs his chisel, to produce conformity to the image of His Son. The full result, as will hereafter be seen, is never attained here, but this is the end God has always in view. Knowing this, for He reveals it in His own word, we can with confidence adopt this language, and say, “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” What an unspeakable consolation to our souls! All things—not one is excepted, but all things, the bitter and the sweet, adversity and prosperity, sickness and health, yea, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword—all are but instruments in the hands of our God to work out His purposed end. How calmly then we may repose in Him and in His love! Like Jacob, we may often be tempted to say, “All these things are against us,” but no, they are for us, working together for good. We may not see the need of this trial, or the reason of that sorrow; but God is watching, noting everything—what we require, and what the effect produced upon us. Our future condition is before Him, and He leads us by a right way to secure the blessing for us.
And it will sustain us in no little measure to have the eye fixed on Him to whom we are to be conformed. God, as we have seen, has Christ before Him; and if He is also before our souls, God’s object is our object. This He desires for us, and in no way could He express more fully the riches of the grace which He has bestowed upon us in Christ. It is beyond our comprehension, though we know the fact, that God should thus associate us with Himself—that He should put us into the blessed position of feasting on the Object that delights His own heart. Moreover, having the eye on Christ is God’s own means for our being changed into His likeness. We thus read, “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” God has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, but He works out the result by His own appointed means. Everything we encounter in our path is auxiliary to this end; but now, in this world, much is dependent on the attitude of our souls. It is quite true that every believer is brought into the place where he can behold the unveiled face of the Lord; it is the Christian position, in contrast with that of the Jew. This is ever to be insisted on; but it is nevertheless to be remembered, that in proportion as we consciously occupy the place shall we be transformed into the likeness of Christ. For example, if there are two children of God, one careless, indifferent, and worldly, the other zealous, devoted, and finding his joy in occupation with Christ, the latter will soon outstrip the former in growing conformity to Christ. The work is wholly of God, but He uses means; and where there is purpose of heart there will be growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This will be at once understood if we consider for a moment the meaning of this scripture. We behold (the words “as in a glass” may be omitted) the unveiled face of the Lord, and in that face all the glory of God is displayed. (See 2 Cor. 4:66For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6).) That is, all the moral glory of God—the sum of His spiritual perfections, the excellency of all His attributes —is concentrated in the face of Christ as the glorified man at God’s right hand. Occupied with Him, having Him before our souls as our model, meditating upon His perfection and beauty as thus revealed, and revealed for us in the written Word, where we may come into contact with and feast upon Christ, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory; ever being changed, changed from one degree to another, because as long as we are in this world we never attain to His full likeness: Perfection is only in Christ, and perfection will only be in us when we are with Him where He is. But meanwhile the glory with which we are occupied, on which we gaze, becomes formative; under the mighty operation of the Spirit of God it leaves its impress upon us, producing ever within us the reflex of its own beauty, and in this way we are transformed daily after the image of Christ. Whenever therefore we are occupied with other things, allow other objects to possess our hearts, we are in opposition to the purpose for which God has taken us up; whereas if Christ is our delight and joy, we are in the full current of His mind, and we become as clay in the hands of the potter, to be molded according to His own will. It is a blessed thing for all of us when we not only understand the object God has in view, but are also in unison with His object, when our only desire is that His desires for us may be unhinderedly accomplished.
Such then is God’s purpose—to conform us to the image of His Son. If we now turn to another scripture we shall see the purpose realized. “Beloved,” writes the Apostle John, “now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear” (it is not manifested) “what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear” (be manifested), “we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2-32Beloved, 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. 3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:2‑3)). The apostle here contrasts the present with the future condition of God’s children. Now are we God’s children, but it is not yet manifested what we shall be. In outward garb and appearance we appear like other men. Even the Lord Himself could not have been known by the natural eye. If we had met Him at any time in the streets of the towns of Galilee, or of Jerusalem, we should only have seen outwardly a lowly man. We might have said, with the unbelieving Jews, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon?” (Mark 6:33Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. (Mark 6:3)). Even the Baptist records that he knew Him not until he saw the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him. So with the children of God. They have the same bodies of humiliation as other men, they are in similar circumstances of trial and sorrow, they have to encounter the same difficulties in their daily path; therefore the world knows them not because it knew Him not. There is a vast change in them; they have been brought out of darkness into God’s marvelous light; they “have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father,” they have heaven itself in full prospect, together with the return of the Lord; but all these things are apprehended and enjoyed only by faith. To the eye of the natural man they have nothing to show, either in their own condition or of their possession. No; these things are not yet manifested.
But John takes us on to the time when it will be displayed, and this is the manifestation of the Lord; for it is not the coming of Christ for His Church to which he alludes (albeit it is then that believers will be like Him), but the actual appearing of Christ in this world. The reason is found in his subject. Here the children of God are, so to speak, in their concealed condition; and here they will be displayed in their full conformity to Christ, when He comes to be glorified in His saints, and to be wondered at in all them that have believed. The Lord Himself refers to this when He says, “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me” (John 17:22-2322And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:22‑23)). The world will then know, because it will see Christ revealed in glory, and the saints displayed in the same glory with Himself.
It is, then, distinctly taught, that in our future condition we shall be like Christ. What then may we understand this to signify? Combining the two passages already considered (Rom. 8:2929For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29); 2 Cor. 3:1818But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)) with the one now before us, it may be replied, in the first place, that in the issue the children of God will have full moral conformity to Christ. As we have pointed out, it is this model which God has ever had before Him; and it may once more be remarked, as warning, that inasmuch as we shall never be morally like Christ until we see Him face to face, there cannot be any such thing as sinless perfection now—this we wait for; though it should also be added, that there is no necessity for the believer to sin. Still, as a matter of fact, he does, and God has graciously provided the Advocacy of Christ for us to meet our need. But while this is the case, there must be no tolerance of sin, and all our desire should be daily to grow in the likeness of the One for whom we wait.
There is, secondly, another thing. Even our bodies will be like the glorified body of Christ. The Apostle Paul says: “Our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body” (the body of our humiliation), “that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body” (the body of His glory), “according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself” (Phil. 3:20-2120For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: 21Who 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 unto himself. (Philippians 3:20‑21)). Also in Corinthians we read: “As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” That is, as now our bodies are like that of the first man, who is of the earth earthy, after the Lord returns we shall have bodies like that of the second Man, who is the Lord Himself. This change will be effected by divine power. Our moral conformity to Christ is being wrought out now, and will be complete when we see Him face to face. The conformity of our bodies to the body of His glory will be accomplished on His return. Thus the apostle says: “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:51-5451Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. (1 Corinthians 15:51‑54)).
There are two classes specified in this scripture—those who will be “changed,” and those who will be raised from the dead; and turning to another epistle we have further details of this mighty and divine operation. There we read: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent” (anticipate, or go before) “them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:4-174That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor; 5Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: 6That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. 7For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. 8He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit. 9But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. 10And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more; 11And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; 12That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. 13But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:4‑17)). Nothing could be clearer than the teaching of this scripture. When the Lord descends from heaven, He will call all His sleeping saints — all who have died before He comes — out of their tombs; and when that vast army shall issue forth, every one will be clothed with an incorruptible body—a body like the glorified body of Him who has summoned them forth; and then all the saints who are living at that instant upon the earth will be changed in a moment—a wave of life and power, as it were, will pass instantaneously over their bodies—and that which was before mortal will have put on immortality; mortality will have been swallowed up of life, for they will all have been “clothed upon with their house which is from heaven” (2 Cor. 5). Thereon all alike are caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. He had come from heaven, and there, as a mighty magnet (if we may venture so to speak), He draws up to Himself all His own, whether sleeping or alive, that He might ever have them with Himself. Redemption by blood has now been consummated in redemption by power (Rom. 8:2323And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:23)), and the Lord Himself sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied. He has other redemption-fruit yet to reap during the thousand years; but as far as the Church is concerned, together indeed with the saints of former dispensations, His work, and the consequences of His work, are finished, and God’s purposes for them have now been unfolded in their perfection; for every one of these myriads of saints has now been conformed to the image of His Son.
To be like Christ in glory therefore is to be like Him spirit, soul, and body. But when we thus speak, it must ever be remembered that we speak of Him as the glorified Man. He ever remains alone in His divine and essential dignity as the eternal Son. Through all eternity He is never less than God, though at the same time He has condescended to become man; and while always more than man, He forever retains His glorified humanity. The mystery of His person abides as the God-man. But it is as man He is the firstborn among many brethren. And what wonder of wonders lies in the statement! That He should not only not be ashamed to call us brethren, but that He should also find it His joy to have us forever in association with Himself! And what travail has He not gone through to execute this purpose of God, and to secure this blessed result! There were the sorrows of His life on earth, His trials and temptations, the agony of the cross when forsaken of His God, His death and resurrection; but though there has never been, and never will be, any sorrow like unto His sorrow, He will be completely satisfied when He beholds the glorious issue of all His redemption toils, when He presents the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
This then is the future condition of the children of God—we shall all be like Christ. The question of our future home remains. The Lord Himself has spoken to us concerning this. Before He departed from His disciples, sorrowing as they were at the prospect before them, He said, for their consolation and instruction, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-31Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1‑3)). The Father’s house is thus revealed as our future home. In the last chapter we saw that it is our privilege to dwell there in spirit even now, but then we shall be actually there, having our place in those many mansions of which the Saviour speaks.
Two or three points of this familiar scripture may be specially noticed, to enable us more fully to comprehend the character and blessedness of our future home. It is no little proof of our Lord’s tenderness that He says to His disciples, “If it were not so, I would have told you.” They must have had thoughts concerning the Father’s house, and the Lord would have corrected them if they had been in error. “No,” He says, “it is even so; there are many mansions; there is room enough for all; not one of My own shall be excluded.” And did they ask themselves, in their doubts and fears, why He should depart and leave them alone in a hostile world, surrounded by bitter foes? He now tells them, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Until He had presented Himself there in the efficacy of redemption, and had taken His place as man in the glory of God, not one of His saints could enter. To Him in all things belongs the preeminence; and not only so, but until, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption, the place was not prepared. The moment, however, He had entered, and was seated on His Father’s throne, all was ready. He thus appeared to the dying Stephen as standing on the right hand of God, because even then, had that guilty nation of the Jews repented, He would have returned to introduce them into all the promised blessing; but rejecting the testimony of the Spirit, even as they had refused and crucified Christ Himself, He resumed, as it were, His seat. But still He could say, “I come quickly,” for the very reason that, the place being prepared, there was nothing to prevent—as far as shown us in the Scriptures—His return at any moment to receive His people unto Himself.
The place is prepared, and He is now only waiting to come to put us in possession of it, He would have us therefore ever to maintain a waiting attitude. While He retains His seat at the right hand of God, He is waiting for us; for the desire of His heart is to have us with Himself; and while we ax here in the wilderness, He would have us waiting for Him, and surely in response to His unspeakable love it will be the desire of our hearts to be with Him. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come,” this is, the only true attitude of the church, and the only proper desire of the saint. As indeed we find it at the close of the book of Revelation, when the Lord says, “Surely I come quickly,” His servant responds, “Amen; even so, come, Lord Jesus.” But the maintenance of this longing expectation is entirely a question of heart. If the Lord Himself is our treasure, our hearts will now be with Him, and all our hope will be to see Him face to face. Like Mary at the sepulcher, nothing then will satisfy our desires but the presence of the One who possesses and absorbs our affections. Without Him the world will be to us a vast sepulcher: death will be written on the whole scene. Others may go to their own homes, and find their interests there, but no place on earth will satisfy us as long as Christ Himself is absent. As pilgrims and strangers we shall pass through this scene, as a dry and thirsty land where no water is—with our loins girded and our lights burning, and we ourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord.
And the very language which the Lord uses is calculated to intensify our desire for His return. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto MYSELF; that where I am, there ye may be also.” It is Himself that He presents to our souls; Himself, in all His ineffable love, as our object; Himself, in all His matchless perfections, as coming for us; Himself, in all the attractions of His adorable Person, as the One with whom we are to be throughout eternity. The presentation of Himself in this manner, if indeed so apprehended, could scarcely fail to awaken the desire for His return in hearts where it had not previously existed, and to revive and sustain it in those where it might have become feeble.
Passing now to the home itself, there is little to add. God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts. Man has sought in every age to imagine the abode—the future home of the children of God, and the consequence, as might be expected, has been that he has endeavored to depict all the externals of the scene, leaving untouched, as compelled to do, its real character and blessedness. Imagination cannot apprehend or describe the things of God, and therefore only reveals its own nakedness and poverty when it seeks to penetrate into their character. No, we know nothing outside of the word of God. As Jeremiah says, “The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?” (Jer. 8:99The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them? (Jeremiah 8:9)).
Taking then the word of God alone, what, let us inquire, have we revealed of our future home? As to the place, but very little; but as to all that is necessary for the spiritual mind, enough to satisfy our largest cravings. But all this is contained in two expressions. First, it is the Father’s house. And who could expound all that is comprised in this blessed word? Speak to a child who has long been absent from home, and is now about to return, is it not enough for him that it is his father’s house to which he is going? Would he dwell upon its size, shape, or situation? No; the one thing in his mind is, that it is the house of his father, and therefore his own home. It is this that marks its character and makes its happiness. The accidents of its position or surroundings have for him but little significance. The father’s house makes the home, and the parents’ hearts are the source of its enjoyment. So with the children of God. The knowledge that they have the Father’s house in prospect, that a place there in its many mansions is already prepared for them, satisfies their largest desires. There they know are boundless provisions for their every possible need; for there is the scene of the full display of the Father’s heart—where His affections flow forth and bless and make eternally happy all His children; yea, they can say, in the language of the hymn—
“There will Thy love find perfect rest,
Where all around is bliss,
Where all in Thee supremely blest,
Thy praise their service is.
“Eternal love their portion is,
Where love has found its rest;
And filled with Thee, the constant mind
Eternally is blest.
“There Christ, the center of the throng,
Shall in His glory shine;
But not an eye those hosts among
But sees His glory Thine.”
The second expression is—With Christ. As in the words of this scripture, “That where I am, there ye may be also.” This is ever the hope held out before the soul; it is indeed distinctively the Christian hope. The Lord thus says to the thief, who was crucified by His side, “Today shalt thou be WITH ME in paradise.” The apostle says, “To depart and be with Christ is far better,” and also, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.” And what more can our souls need in order to express the perfect blessedness of the Father’s house, than to be there with Christ! The realization of His presence here constitutes our deepest joy: to be with Him in spirit is our highest privilege. But there we shall be with Him forever in perpetual and undisturbed communion. He will then continually sup with us, and we with Him. In the promise to the overcomer in Philadelphia He has given us a glimpse of our eternal association with Himself in every possible character of blessedness. He says, “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God; and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him My new name” (Rev. 3:1212Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name. (Revelation 3:12)). This promise takes its special form from the character of the book in which it is found, as well as from the circumstances of the saints in Philadelphia; but the point to which we desire to call attention is the association of the overcomer with Christ. It is the name of “My” God, the name of the city of “My” God, and “My” new name. And therein lies the joy of Christ Himself, as also our own joy—His joy in having us forever with Himself, and our joy in being forever with Him.
Such is the prospect which the word of God unfolds to His children. Of our circumstances in the Father’s house little is revealed. We are told that we shall be like Christ and with Christ, and more than this we cannot desire to know. The only scripture that draws back the veil that now conceals the eternal state from us shows us two things: first, that the Church will be the tabernacle of God; and, secondly, that there are others in the scene—men, the saved saints of other dispensations. And when describing their condition it says: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:3-43And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Revelation 21:3‑4)). God here fills the scene—God, in all that He is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because it is the eternal state, the Son Himself is now “subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:2828And 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. (1 Corinthians 15:28)). The Son, as the glorified Man, is identified forever with His brethren, and God Himself therefore fills our vision in this description. The blessedness of the “men” who appear here is twofold. Positively, it consists in having God Himself dwelling with them, in being His people, and in God Himself being with them—their God. Negatively, it lies in the absence of everything that caused sorrow while living in this weary world. God had been their comforter; He had wiped away their tears. What infinite tenderness is expressed in that the hand of God Himself had wiped away, and wiped away their tears forever! For their tears could never return; for “there shall be no more death.” By one man sin had “entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all had sinned.” But the Lamb of God has now taken away the sin of the world. Once in the consummation of the ages had He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and on the foundation of that sacrifice God has now put it out of His sight forever; and through the value of that same sacrifice death has been for the blessed inhabitants of this scene forever swallowed up in victory. Sin and death gone, the sources of all our sorrows in this life, there can be neither sorrow, crying, nor pain. No; the former things have passed away. The scene itself is as perfect as God Himself can make it. Righteousness dwells in it; and the perfections of God now unfolded are the blessed source of the eternal joy of His redeemed people. All things are made new; and “he that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be His God, and he shall be My son.”
“Abba, Father, we adore Thee,
While the hosts in heaven above
E’en in us now learn the wonders
Of Thy wisdom, grace, and love;
Soon before Thy throne assembled,
All Thy children shall proclaim
Abba’s love as shown in Jesus,
And how full is Abba’s name!”
Courtesy of BibleTruthPublishers.com. Any suggestions for spelling or punctuation corrections would be warmly received. Please email them to: BTPmail@bibletruthpublishers.com.