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Articles 2018-2020
All of creation is waiting for God’s work in His people to come into a measured full clarity before the eyes of the nations. Since mankind is lost and without hope, our God determined to make known His solution, even His own Son. Indeed, Christ is Heaven’s answer to humanity’s confusion. And Christ made known in His people by the power of the Holy Spirit both individually and corporately is His present apostolic work.
When Adam sinned, God began to implement His strategy to restore the creation.
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.
First, God subjected everything to futility. Apart from Him, life has no ultimate meaning. And along with this, everything seems to be in a state of constant corruption/decay. Science calls it the law of entropy. Our bodies experience aging, our cars rust, the buildings we design crumble, and the ozone layer is wearing thin. And it was God who set this present condition in motion with an underlying hope in His heart. Just as we used to be in bondage to the law of sin and death, so also, the whole creation continues in present captivity to an ongoing futility. But an enduring hope residing in God’s heart underlies the unfolding drama.
Our part in the developing story is that we must discover and explore the freedom that is in the glory of God. Here is where the creation is headed. And we are to lead the way. For God’s people to be ensnared in religious legalism is not only a sad state of affairs, it reflects Satan’s strategy against the purpose of God. It was for freedom that Christ set us free (Galatians 5:1 NASB). That liberty found in the glory of His presence is the heritage of the whole planet. But to get there will require the labor pains of birth.
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 firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
When we see tsunamis, earthquakes, and tornadoes, etc., we are not seeing our planet in its death throes, but in the birth pains of the new heavens and earth. It is true that the creation will experience God’s judgment day of fire (2 Peter 3:7 - 12). But on the other side of that day, we will encounter the new creation in its fullness (2 Peter 3:13). The Greek word that Peter uses indicates that it will not be a different creation, but this one made new.
And Christ’s Church is the beginning of the new creation. In our hearts, we know that we are a foretaste of the coming age. And so we groan, longing for our full redemption, the glorification 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. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Since we are God’s “tip of the spear” in leading creation into the freedom found in His glory, we must pray accurately. But we do not know how or what to specifically target in our prayers. Thankfully, God himself, residing in our hearts is committed to the project. The groaning of both the creation and of the saints for the coming full redemption (vs. 22 - 23) is but a reflection of His own heart of travail within His people. He is bringing the coming age to birth and is involving us in the process. What a privilege it is to be His children!
From heaven He is intimately involved with and one with the articulated cry of His Spirit from our hearts as we learn to pray His purpose.
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
As we learn to pray His will for His people (of course, praying in tongues is part of this scenario), our prayers will realize the Heaven coordinated and integrated unfolding of a plan that at its roots and in its fruits is good, acceptable, and perfect (Romans 8:28).
But for His plan to succeed, He must bring the redeemed part of His creation into conformity to the likeness of His Son. Christ is our goal (He is truth), He is the way to get there (He is the way), and He is the sustaining power of God throughout the journey (He is the life). And not one of us who know Him came into this relationship on our own apart from Him. Before we knew Him, He was already intimately involved in our lives through the drawing and convicting power of the Holy Spirit. And from that place of intimate foreknowledge, He began to articulate the destiny He had designed for each of us – the very likeness of His Son (Romans 8:29). For us to get there, we simply must keep our eyes continually fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And because our destiny is in fact a pre-destiny (one known in God’s heart even from before the foundation of the world), His calling upon our lives began to surface in our hearts even while we were yet in spiritual blindness. And when we clearly heard His voice and responded, we experienced Heaven’s justification, the very righteousness of God. This gift is in fact our present foretaste of our future glorification. Amazingly, just as God could speak of our destiny before we knew Him, He can also speak of our future glorification in the past tense (Romans 8:30). How cool is that?
So the question arises. Who can possibly succeed in plotting against this precious and eternally designed work of God in the lives of His people?
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
I think we can rest assured that there is simply nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Consider Heaven’s supply to accomplish His work among us.
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
All things? Wow! Can anyone seriously think that our God will be stingy toward us concerning the necessary grace to accomplish His work? But notice that the “all things” are given in conjunction with Christ. It is only in receiving Him that the all-sufficient supply of Heaven is accessible and effective. Too often, we can tend to celebrate the gifts given while at the same time start to turn our attention from the One in whom they are found. The result then can be that ministry, spiritual experiences, and observable results from our service become the message. But how does that information set men free? Certainly, God can use such testimony to draw people to His Son. But if used unwisely, it can attract undue attention to the one speaking. And while the speaker’s ministry then may become more renowned, God’s Kingdom gets obscured.
The Kingdom of God is only made known when the King himself is revealed in and through our words and lives. How easy it is to get sidetracked. Heaven’s memo is Christ, not how many demons I have cast out or how many spiritual experiences I have had. Certainly, such events are to happen in the lives of God’s people; they are to be expected. But the Scriptures do not tell us to make them the message. In fact, our Lord cautioned against such thinking (Luke 10:17 - 20).
Again, Heaven’s supply is fully available in Christ.
Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
Will our Lord succeed in His intercessions in heaven on our behalf as fully as He succeeded in His mission among us on earth? Will He see the travail of His soul and be satisfied (Isaiah 53:11)? Yes. The truth about His present reign is good news. In fact, everything about Him is true and to be celebrated. When we consider Him historically, when we behold Him in prayer today, and when we look forward to His future visible appearing, we rejoice with a hope that is full of glory.
Yet in this life, we will know opposition. Our enemy has and will throw everything he can against us in order to hinder the work of God on earth. In his arsenal is persecution, a strategy to stir up trouble, and even a desire to put us to death. Will he succeed in his nefarious aspirations to prevent the coming promised glory?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Donald Rumble – February 2018
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