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The Coming Increase of Christ in His House
God’s objective is a beautiful and glorious house, filled with His glory. Many years before Christ’s incarnation, God promised Israel that though great darkness would cover the Earth, yet His glory would dawn on them (Isaiah 60). Sure enough, many years of darkness ensued among the nations as first the Babylonians, then the Persians, followed by the Greeks under Alexander, and finally the Romans conquered that part of the world. But into the midst of Roman oppression a light began to rise.
The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned. From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The emerging light was none other than Christ himself. Over the last two thousand years, kings and nations have turned toward Christ, Israel’s light, just as Isaiah prophesied. Then God gave Isaiah further insight. In a time when Israel’s sons would be returning to their own land, the nation’s eyes would suddenly be opened and they would see and become radiant (Isaiah 60:4-5). Today, while we see many Jews returning to their homeland, we still await the fulfillment of the promised opening of the nation’s eyes; Israel’s salvation lies yet in our future.
Isaiah prophesied that great blessings would follow Israel’s return to the Lord, resulting in Him achieving His primary objective. He would beautify His glorious house (Isaiah 60:7, 13, 14).
There is a greater glory yet to be revealed in God’s house than what we have experienced to this day. According to the Apostle Paul, it hinges upon a certain fullness of the Holy Spirit’s work in His Church among the nations so as to make Israel jealous (Romans 11). In this book, we have proposed that God’s objective is a growing escalation of the nature and character of Christ in His people. In the end, it will be the Lord Jesus revealing himself in His redeemed people who will win Israel to himself.[8]
It is only then when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, that all Israel will be saved. This amazing event will then release among the nations greater riches than what came through Israel’s fall (Romans 11:12). Along this line, Peter prophesied to the men of Israel that prior to Christ’s return when the nation turned back to God, seasons of refreshing would come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19-20).
In those coming days, God’s house will be a place of feasting. Christ himself will be central among us; He will be our life. A growing illumination among the nations will accompany God’s work of devouring the international veil of death shrouded over the world. Many will turn to God.
The result will ultimately be a glorious bride made ready for the Lord. Because of abundant mercy and amazing grace, she will look like she belongs next to Him.
There will also arise in those days a desperate counterattack by Satan as he realizes that his time is short. He will probably take his final stand by pushing for a one-world governmental system rallying around one main goal--the destruction of God’s people. But God has him in His crosshairs.
God’s final Word to the nations is Christ; He is the Word made flesh.
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.
(Hebrews 1:1-2 NASB)
The reason that the last days consist of the entire Church age is because God has revealed the final environment for His voice to be heard among men. There can be no days of greater finality; God has found the perfect setting for revealing himself, even His own Son. Our response must be to love the Lord Jesus with all of our hearts and seek to abide in Him. As the Church comes to learn her proper abode, we will find the last days culminating in the last day, the day of Christ’s glorious appearing.
Two thousand years ago when the Eternal One became a man and walked among us, eternity tore the fabric of time. Since those days, whenever the Lord pours out His Spirit among us on Earth, the fabric of time shreds a little more. Eternity is busting in on man’s plans and agendas, and there is nothing he can do about it except to bow his knee and submit. Getting mad won’t help. Rebellion will only bring destruction.
But God informs us that in this era of finality, He has an order, an administration for culminating human history. This divine arrangement of His people is greater than any Christian sect or any organized expression of Christian religion. What God is constructing among us by His Spirit supersedes all the various lines of division presently separating us.
He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
(Ephesians 1:9-10 NASB)
God’s administration for revealing the mysteries of eternity is simply Christ and all who are alive in Him. And there in this environment, in His Son, God intends to sum up everything that He has been doing since the beginning. In His summation, He will make reference to those in Christ who are in Heaven as well as those still alive on Earth. But if we want to understand His concluding remarks to the creation with any degree of clarity while still on this side of eternity, we must be one of those living and abiding in Christ.
Think of someone delivering an important speech. At the end, he summarizes what he has been saying. In other words, he goes back and recapitulates his previous major points, touching on them briefly one more time. While it may have taken a few hours to deliver his word from beginning to end, the recap will be short in comparison. But it will consist of “in a nutshell” the heart of all that he said earlier.
Consider what God has been saying since Adam’s days in the Garden of Eden. He has spoken personally to individuals such as Abraham and brought them into their eternal destiny. He spoke in a cloud to Moses of His plans for the nation of Israel. He confronted Egypt’s gods with plagues, revealing His power and their bankruptcy. He spoke with revelatory power again and again to the prophets throughout the whole Old Testament era.
And don’t forget Elisha’s servant who saw the mountains filled with chariots of fire or the false prophets of Baal who saw God’s prophet call down holy fire to consume the sacrifice. And then there were the angelic visitations that many experienced, including Daniel, Mary the mother of Jesus, and John on the Isle of Patmos.
Of course, God revealed himself in Christ when He turned water into wine, healed the sick, walked on water and cast out demons. Since rising from the dead, He has spoken frequently to men and women throughout the last two thousand years. We think of the apostles Peter, Paul, and John. We also acknowledge Madam Guyon, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the many heroes of the faith in the last century, etc.
Clearly, the Lord has been speaking and revealing His purpose among men through many mighty works of faith. But in the days following Israel’s salvation, He will begin His summation. And He will recap it all. Imagine those coming days. Everything that the Lord has been emphasizing from the beginning will hit the Earth in an explosive and concise restatement.
He will probably not leave much out, but will instead touch all of His previous major points and do so in such a way that the world will not be able to ignore Him. Did He confront nations with His power and glory in biblical times? He will do so again. Did He manifest himself in amazing demonstrations of fire from Heaven? He will do so again.
In fact, the Lord will trumpet forth the clearest and most comprehensive sound ever heard by one generation concerning the realities of Heaven and Earth. His final work on Earth will so harmonize His people with the truth of the heavenly realms that many who are lost among the nations will see and be compelled to attend His feast. Then, finally, God will see His house filled up and He will rejoice.
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