KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
studies in end-time revelation
LOOKING FOR HIS APPEARING
Part 46
COMING TO, WITH, AND IN HIS SAINTS
Everybody is prophesying the soon coming of the Lord, and they have been doing so for hundreds of years. He didn't come. Not in the way they thought He was going to come. Two millenniums ago the Jews had it all figured out that the Messiah would come as a great military general to crush their enemies and as a king in regal splendor to sit upon the throne in old Jerusalem; but He came as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. He came healing, teaching and preaching on the sunkissed hills of Galilee. He came a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and a Saviour dying ignominiously between two thieves on Golgotha's hill.
According to the popular teachings of our day, Christ will, at any moment now, come in a secret rapture "FOR His saints," take them to heaven for seven years, and then come back again "WITH the saints." The argument is, of course, that since He will come "with" His people (Zech. 14:5; Jude 14; I Thes. 3:12-13), He will have to come earlier "for" the saints. Repeatedly we hear statements like this: "Jesus is coming FOR a church without spot or wrinkle," or "Soon Jesus will return FOR His Church, to take it out of the world," or "The Lord comes in the rapture FOR His saints; after the Tribulation period, He comes with His saints." I just finished reading an article by a well-known personality (now deceased) on the second coming of Christ. In commenting on II Thes. 4:16-17 she says, "When Christ comes in this first stage, this great catching away, He will not touch the earth, He will come into our atmosphere, and the, believers will be caught up to meet Him in the air... then comes stage two: the final phase of the Second Coming of Christ. This is the revelation - when Jesus Christ comes back to earth to set up His kingdom."
Since so many Christians are steadfastly looking for Jesus to come FOR the Church, to whisk it away up to heaven somewhere, to sing and shout and eat for seven years, while the rest of mankind are suffering indescribable agonies, we need to take a closer look at the Word and see if ANYWHERE in the Bible we can find this expression "coming FOR the saints." This may come as a shock to some who read these lines, but the Bible NOWHERE speaks of Jesus coming "FOR the saints." Let those who continually use this term show us where it appears in the pages of God's inspired Book. Let them search! It cannot be found! Never! Nowhere! Not even once! Surely then, a teaching which constantly employs an expression that is foreign to the Word of God should be subjected to close examination. I can hear some dear saint saying, "Oh, but the Bible does say that Jesus is coming FOR a Church without spot or wrinkle." No it doesn't! What it says is that Jesus loved the Church and gave Himself for it "that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might PRESENT IT TO HIMSELF a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing" (Eph. 5:26-27). In order to "present the Church to Himself" in a holy and blameless condition doesn't necessitate "taking" it anywhere!
We have all been guilty sometime in our lives of thinking we were quoting scripture, when actually we were merely repeating the sayings of men. Often through the years I have heard people say, "The Good Book says that God helps those who help themselves." But that quotation isn't found in Holy Writ. What about this one: "God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform." It's quite pretty, but it isn't in the Book either. "God will cast your sins into the sea of forgetfulness," people quote. Poetic, but it's not a quotation of scripture. Ever hear this oldie: "Every tub must sit on its own bottom." I have no idea where that saying originated, but it certainly didn't come out of the Bible. And then the most famous MISQUOTE of all time: "Christ is coming back FOR a Church without spot or wrinkle." A popular concept, but I must hasten to tell you, my friend, it's NOT IN THE BOOK! What saith the scripture? "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might PRESENT IT TO HIMSELF a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Why did we misquote this beautiful passage making it say that Christ is coming "for" the Church when it plainly says no such thing? Because the darkness of the carnal mind is predisposed to read into the scriptures what we have been taught. It wasn't there, yet we quoted it. We heard the incessant drumbeat of Christ coming "for" the saints until we thoughtless injected the notion into the Word of God. Once a person has the concept in mind that there will be a special coming of the Lord "for" the saints, he then reads about believers being "caught up" and immediately concludes that they will be caught up to "heaven" somewhere. But that is not what the passage in I Thes. 4:16-17 says at all!
It is almost impossible to show some, who loudly proclaim their love of the truth, the groundlessness of their cherished "Rapture Theory." They are bound and determined that they will "fly away" in spite of the plain statements of the Word of God. Tradition says otherwise, and tradition takes precedence over what the Word, or anyone else, may say. No, tradition lovers have not changed one whit in the two thousand years since the Pharisees were rebuked by our Lord. "Ye have made the commandment of God of none effect through your tradition" (Mat. 15:6). Cross their first love (tradition) and they will cast you out, stone you or crucify you. And the church system's traditions about the "second coming of Christ" are the most sacred of all and to be revered as a shrine of truth. What God really says about "The Unveiling of the Christ" couldn't mean less to them. "Tradition be praised! Oh, mighty tradition we love thee! Tradition, we serve and worship thee! Tradition, you are our God! You are our Bible! We follow you blindly, and woe to the person who raises a voice against thee! The King James Bible is the only Bible! My Church teaches it this way and I accept what my Church teaches in spite of what men or the scriptures say! O Mighty Tradition, we are true to you in spite of everything else!"
If the scriptures speak not of the coming of the Lord "FOR" His saints, WHAT DO THEY SAY? It readily appears that His coming is expressed in three dimensions, namely: He will come TO His saints; He will come WITH His saints; and He will come IN His saints. He is coming TO us, He is coming WITH us, and He is coming IN us. When the coming of the Lord has been studied and taught, it has usually been in one of those three, but not all of them. There has, in fact, been some idea that one aspect has been set in juxtaposition to the other to the extent that only one of these concepts is right or valid. But one does not exclude the other; in fact, understood in proper sequence one supports the other, one leads to the other, one prepares for the successive comings of the Lord. It should be obvious to any reader of these lines that the distinction between TO, WITH and IN is not without a difference. His coming TO us is different from His coming WITH us, and His coming WITH us is different than His coming IN us. And rather than contending for one aspect or another our hearts cry in this hour for the "fuller revelation" which will combine and harmonize the many "facets" and bring the new light of His full-orbed and unlimited glory!
The first prerequisite for the coming of the Lord WITH His saints and IN His saints is His coming TO His saints. He cannot come WITH us unless first He has come TO us, and He must come TO us before He can come IN us. As someone has said, Whether He comes to our front door in the form of a man, or beams down a shaft of light brighter than the noon day sun, is not the issue. The point is HE SHALL COME TO US, and HE SHALL BRING TO US that grace which bespeaks the fullness of our salvation. The testimony is sure: "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and WE WILL COME UNTO HIM, and make our abode with him" (Jn. 14:23). By His Spirit He comes, yes, in ways, and in dimensions far beyond our present comprehension. How we long to be FULLY INDWELT BY HIM till we overflow with His abundant and eternal life. But He can only indwell us in the measure that first He has come TO US.
There is a coming of the Lord TO His Church through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Our authority for this is found in Jn. 14:15-18 wherein Jesus says, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you (as Jesus), and shall be in you (as the Spirit). I will not leave you comfortless: I WILL COME U-N-T-O YOU." Now, HE is the One "whom the heavens must receive (retain) until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:21). He is now in the heavens - the INVISIBLE SPIRIT REALM, from whence also we LOOK FOR Him (Phil. 3:20-21). This word "look" is from the Greek APEKDECHOMAI meaning TO RECEIVE OUT FROM. Ah, He does not forever remain in the invisible sphere, but we RECEIVE OUT FROM the heavens, for HE COMES TO US in mighty spirit power, in the manifestation of Himself. OUT OF THE INVISIBLE comes a visible manifestation. There is not the slightest uncertainty that this is exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost when suddenly "there CAME FROM HEAVEN A SOUND as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there APPEARED UNTO THEM cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:2-4). Out of the heavens, out of the invisible came the visible manifestation of His presence. He came, as He had promised, TO them!
God had spoken through the prophet Malachi concerning His coming TO His people in these words, "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come TO His temple" (Mal. 3:1). The outpouring of God's Spirit is in the scriptures likened to the falling of rain (Isa. 44:3; 32:15). There are two other scriptures which I will quote from the Old Testament to indicate the Lord's coming TO His people in a latter rain outpouring. The first is Joel 2:23: "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will CAUSE TO COME DOWN for you the rain, the former rain, AND the latter rain in the first month." Then in Hos. 6:1-3 we have the following admonition and promise: "Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and HE SHALL COME UNTO US AS THE RAIN, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." We are now in the dawning period of this third day, and the Lord is beginning to come to His people as the rain, praise His name.
There is abundant testimony in the New Testament and all the Christian centuries to the fact that Christ does come in special ways at special times, sometimes quite unexpectedly, both to those who seek Him and those who seek Him not. Take, for example, His striking self-revelation to Saul of Tarsus, as on the road to Damascus, "suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven," and he fell to the earth for a revolutionary experience. Here we have a man bent with all the intensity of his nature on one course of action, being suddenly thrust upon another. To the day of his death the apostle Paul was convinced, and all his personal history confirmed his conviction, that it was Christ he met that day. "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" came the divine Voice. "Who art Thou, Lord?" "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." The Voice that spoke to him was not identified just as "Christ," which some would conclude was only the Anointing Spirit, but the Voice declared, "I AM J-E-S-U-S." It matters not how those words were conveyed to the intelligence of the man who heard them; they revolutionized his whole career; he had come into contact with Christ Himself, and he knew it with a certainty nothing could ever shake in the years to come, when he suffered the extremity of evil and final martyrdom for the sake of His mighty name. No man does that in obedience to an imperative which is less than overwhelming.
Nor was this all. Three years the new convert spent in silence and seclusion before he began to teach the faith he once denied. Who gave him his message? He says he conferred not with flesh and blood; no man, not even a five-fold ministry taught him what to say! Here is his own account of it: "I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, nor was I taught it, but by the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST" (Gal. 1:11-12). No follower of Christ has ever given more emphatic testimony of his assurance of the immediacy of his relationship to his Lord. Christ came to him, to him alone, as though there was none other with whom to dwell, so that in time to come he could say, in recounting his experience before king Agrippa, the words the Lord Jesus had spoken unto him in that eventful day, "But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I HAVE APPEARED unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I WILL APPEAR unto thee" (Acts 26:16). "I W-I-L-L APPEAR!" Is it not plain to be seen that the appearing of the Lord in Paul's life was an on-going reality from glory to glory? He was TAUGHT by the REVELATION of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! Only one who had encountered the Lord in a personal and real way could pen these meaningful words: "For I have RECEIVED OF THE LORD that which I delivered unto you..." (I Cor. 11:23). The Lord appeared UNTO Paul and continued to appear TO him throughout his ministry, imparting the transforming truths he proclaimed.
When, like another Saul of Tarsus, George Fox in the seventeenth century felt that he was at odds with life, and, to use his own words, could find none able to speak to his condition, he heard a Voice which said, "There is One, Jesus Christ, who can speak to thy condition." So sure was this apostle of the inner light, this indefatigable missionary of peace and simplicity of heart - so sure was he of the reality of the possession which Christ took of his whole being from that time forward, that it made him one of the mightiest spiritual forces of his time.
Has there ever been a conversion to Christ which was not a revelation of Christ to the inner man; and has there ever been a spiritual movement which did not originate somewhere in an advent of Christ to an earnest, seeking soul; and even to those sanctified souls of whom the world knows nothing, and who had never been called to serve God in the open, as it were? Has there ever been an accession of power, wisdom, understanding, comfort, and grace, which was not at the same time a newer and deeper apprehension of Christ? There can be no spiritual experience which is not rooted in an immediate personal knowledge of Christ as Lord, Saviour, Healer, Baptizer, Shepherd, Friend, etc. Sometimes this is so strong, so real, so all-subduing, that it seems to the percipient as though Christ had singled him out for special favor. In some cases the very day and hour of the experience stand out vividly from all the rest of life; in some it is not until long afterwards that the full significance of the spiritual visitation illuminates the consciousness. In either event we say of it: "It was Christ who came to me then, and my whole world has been new ever since." Christ is always coming, coming in ways which the world cannot recognize; coming in sorrow, coming in joy; coming in tumult, coming in peace; coming in judgment, coming in quickening; coming in strange and mysterious visitations, coming in silence and in power and great glory.
It may be in the evening, When the work of the day is done,
And you have time to sit in the twilight, And watch the sinking sun,
While the long bright day dies slowly Over the sea,
And the hour grows quiet and holy With thoughts of Me;
While you hear the village children Passing along the street -
Among those thronging footsteps May come the sound of My feet.
Therefore I tell you, Watch! By the light of the evening star
When the moon is growing dusky As the clouds afar,
Let the door be on the latch In your home,
For it may be through the gloaming I WILL COME.
"Looking for His appearing" does not mean gazing into the skies for Jesus to flash down from heaven on a cloud. There are many modes and forms of the appearing of the Lord Jesus. EACH MANIFESTATION IS ON THE PLANE OF CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE PERSON TO WHOM HE APPEARS, AND EACH IS DESIGNED TO MEET A NEED. Understand this truth, my beloved, and you will comprehend a great mystery of the Kingdom of God. Every man and woman on the face of the earth, regardless of spiritual stature, should, on the plane they are on, LOOK FOR HIS APPEARING TO THEM, for men are always transformed thereby. It is impossible to emphasize too strongly the fact that the Christ appears to men right where they are and on a level of manifestation they are capable to receive. He appears to us in greater and greater glory as we walk on in Him.
Jude, the brother of Jesus, who wrote the small book of Jude in the New Testament, quotes a prophecy from Enoch in vs. 14: "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh WITH ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all." This is in harmony with II Thes. 1:7-8 where Paul states that "the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven WITH His mighty messengers, in flaming fire taking vengence on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." Another passage which shows that Jesus comes WITH His saints is I Thes. 3:13, "To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ WITH all His saints." And again, "They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign WITH HIM a thousand years" (Rev. 20:6).
It is a wonderful truth, as we shall elaborate later, that Christ shall come "to be glorified IN His saints, and to be admired IN all them that believe" (II Thes. 1:10). But it is equally true that we shall be GLORIFIED TOGETHER with Jesus. So Paul says, "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and JOINT HEIRS W-I-T-H CHRIST; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also GLORIFIED T-O-G-E-T-H-E-R" (Rom. 8:17). Paul makes it clear that Jesus is one son of God and we are also sons. And that first son and all His younger brethren are to be GLORIFIED TOGETHER. This is not the "in" glorification of the Christ, but the "with" glorification. TOGETHER! To be GLORIFIED TOGETHER is the hope that springs perennial within my breast. This glorious experience of being GLORIFIED TOGETHER is a reference to our union with Christ as members of His body, and speaks of a time when this entire company of the sons of God, in union with Christ the Head, shall be GLORIFIED TOGETHER - IMMERSED INTO THE LIFE OF CHRIST, sharing with Him in that glory. This entire company shall be joined to Christ to share with Him in the blessed glorification experience when we shall partake of His glory, being fully transformed into the body of His likeness. These will be joined to Christ the Head, so that the manifestation of Christ at the cnd of this age will be a company of the redeemed. This time His appearing will be not only as the Head, but as THE COMPLETED BODY OF CHRIST prepared to execute judgment upon all.
When Christ comes WITH His people "every eye shall see Him." "Behold, He cometh WITH clouds (of His saints); and every eye shall see Him" (Rev. 1:7). When He is manifested His people are manifested also. "When Christ our life shall appear (or be manifested) , then shall ye also appear W-I-T-H HIM IN GLORY" (Col. 3:4). "For He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are WITH HIM are called, and chosen, and faithful" (Rev. 17:14).
In moments of meditation I thought upon this beautiful truth of Christ coming with His saints and in His saints and wondered what exactly was the difference. There is always an element of profound mystery wherever the mind and wisdom of God is concerned. As in spirit I waited upon the Lord for instruction and counsel with the prayer, "Open mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law," the rain of revelation fell upon my understanding and the light of God dawned in my heart. Suddenly, I SAW! The coming of Christ IN the saints is "Christ IN YOU, the hope of glory," whereas Christ coming WITH the saints is WE IN HIM! He comes IN US, and we come IN HIM. He grows up IN US, while we grow up IN HIM. He is manifested IN US, but we are manifested IN HIM. He is glorified IN US, whereas we are glorified IN HIM. Oh! the mystery of it. Oh, the wonder of it!
Of this great and eternal truth George Hawtin has graphically written: "We shall go much farther than this by saying that, great as is the truth of 'Christ in you' and glorious beyond the scope of all but the spiritual mind, the truth that YOU are 'in Christ' is fatherless in its depths and lofty beyond the highest eminence. If 'Christ in you' is the HOPE of glory, as the scripture says it is (Col. 1:27), then 'you in Christ' must certainly be the GLORY. In Christ! In Christ! Think of the glory of the expression! 'God was IN CHRIST:' the Word declares. And now - mystery of mysteries - He is saying that His people are also 'in Christ.' Then we are told, 'God was IN CHRIST reconciling the world unto Himself,' and now 'if ANY MAN be IN CHRIST he is a new creation' (II Cor. 5:17). Certainly he must be a new creation, for he has entered the realm where God dwells. No longer is he of the earth earthy, but one spirit with the Lord from heaven. Herein is the prayer of Jesus fulfilled, 'I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one' (Jn. 17:23). This oneness is no unity of doctrine or belief as the church system would have us think, but individual members baptized into one body and that body THE BODY OF CHRIST.
"In Christ Jesus! What a transforming expression that is! Quoted and read by countless millions, but understood, I fear, by practically none. Let the reader visualize the form of a man, standing with his feet on the earth, so tall that his head reaches the heavens above and so broad that his form fills the universe ALL IN ALL. Then let him examine the scene more closely and his wondering eyes will see that this gigantic man, God's anointed Christ, is a man of MANY MEMBERS just as the human body is one body with many members. Look closer still and you will now see that each and every member in that mighty form is an individual man, a son of God. The Head is the man Jesus of Nazareth. The arms, the fingers, the toes, the heart, the nerves, the blood vessels - every member of Him that filleth all in all is an individual man and every man is a son of God. And, if you will look still more closely, you will see an even greater wonder, for every man, every member, every son in that whole gigantic form is in the exact image of Jesus Christ, the Head, the first begotten Son of God. O, how I hope you can grasp the picture!" -end quote.
And so it is that "in Christ" He cannot come except
we come WITH HIM and He WITH US. It is a divine union between God and man,
between Jesus Christ and His body. It must have been with the revelation and
understanding of the Almighty upon his mind that the hymn writer uas inspired to
pen these immortal words:
Lo! He comes, with clouds descending, Once for favored sinners slain;
Thousand thousand saints attending, Swell the triumphs of His train;
Hallelujah! GOD appears on earth to reign.
"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty messengers, when He shall come to be GLORIFIED I-N HIS SAINTS, and to be admired IN all them that believe in that day" (II Thes. 1:7,10).
The moment any man identifies himself with the INDWELLING CHRIST of God he enters into an entirely new realm. He has passed from the limited knowledge of a distant Christ to CHRIST AS HIS LIFE. He has heard the message of the Lord, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man (the individual) hear My voice, and open the door, I WILL COME IN TO HIM, and I will sup with him and he with Me (Rev. 3:20). He comes not to the flesh oriented church of today where the claim is being made, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." He is outside the temples of carnal zeal and fleshly prosperity. He comes not to a vast multitude gathered within the Laodicean church systems of this dark age, but to that "little flock" of footstep followers who have been set aside of the Lord for the most intimate and personal visitation. How wonderful it is when the Christ comes IN to sup with us and us with Him! How blessed we are to have that intimate and sacred communion with the Lord!
Multitudes of sincere believers today are gazing wistfully into the sky, yearning and watching with eager anticipation for Christ to return, riding upon a white charger, appearing in the clouds of the atmosphere, leading the armies of heaven in vengence upon an ungodly world. But not one in ten thousand has turned aside and taken the shoes from off his feet as with understanding he has heard the penetrating voice of the Son of God crying, "If any man will open the door, I WILL COME IN TO HIM!" Centuries ago Paul, by the divine wisdom given unto him, wrote these words of truth: "But it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to REVEAL HIS SON I-N ME, that I might preach Him among the heathen... and they glorified GOD I-N ME" (Gal. 1:15-16,24). Paul is here describing the process of his own conversion and call to apostleship, the light which he saw from heaven. He says that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. Why IN Him? Why does he not say, "It pleased God to reveal His Son TO me?" Was not the light which he saw an outer vision? Did it not arrest him at midday with a glory above the brightness of the sun? Did it not bar the way to his old nature, and bid his life to holy transformation in the midst of his journey? Surely that appearing of His Lord was a vision to his outer eye. Ah, but can any picture be but a vision to the outer eye? Can a thing be revealed TO me and not be revealed IN me? Is the landscape on which I gaze revealed only to my outer vision? No - or it would not be revealed at all; there could be no beauty without if there were not a sense of beauty within. Is the music to which I listen revealed only to my outward ear? Nay, or I would be deaf to it for evermore; there could be no harmony without if there were not a sense of harmony within. So it is with the beauty of Him who is fairer than the children of men! Often have I envied the lot of those who were permitted to gaze upon His outward form, to see the radiance on His face, to hear the thrill of His voice. Yet was it not to the very chief of these that the words were spoken, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee." It was not the eye which saw the radiance, it was not the ear which heard the thrill; it was the soul, the heart, the life, the responsive spirit bearing witness with His Spirit, the deep within that ran out to meet its counterpart, and found in Him its ALL because it found in Him all its yearning and desire.
My God, reveal Thy Son IN ME! I ask for more than an audible voice, because I need more. It would not help me to behold Thy handwriting on the clouds of heaven; it would be but the letters of a book to the child that cannot read. Teach me the meaning of Thy appearing! No description of Thy heavens could declare their glory to the one born blind; no description of Thy Christ could manifest His greatness to the one dead in trespasses and sins. Therefore, O Spirit of God, unseal the inner eye, unstop the spiritual ear, that the symmetries and the harmonies of Thy glorious Christ may be revealed. It is in Thy light alone that we shall see light. Only they who are rooted and grounded in love shall be able to comprehend that love of Thine, which, although familiar to all saints, passeth finite knowledge. I shall see the King in His beauty when His beauty shall be revealed in me!
Jesus Christ is coming again, and He is coming to be glorified IN His saints and to be admired IN the sons of God who by His grace have come into His image throughout the ages. These sons are the body of the Son of God. This is the fullness of the Christ. Not for the world nor all that is in it would I for one moment miss the glory of the age and ages which are to come! To reign with Christ and with Him usher all creation into the glory of God, which has been the vision of the prophets, the dream of the sages, the cry of the sons, the purpose of God, and the longing and expectation of ALL CREATION is a prize of far vaster worth than all the power and glory and wealth of all the nations of earth combined. Though God's Christ is One, it will take the ages to come to reveal His manifold beauties and graces. He is the one Christ, yet His body is made up of many redeemed souls. He is the true Vine, yet there are many branches. He is the only-begotten Son of God, yet He is leading many sons to glory. He is the only Saviour, yet He is bringing a whole company of saviours up on Mount Zion.
I bring you good news. YOU ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST; not the "mystical body" as the theologians of Babylon are wont to define it, but you are T-H-E B-O-D-Y of Christ and Christ is IN YOU of a truth, precious friend of mine, to manifest the fullness of Himself. We can think and know and act like God and not like men. Let us pray as did Paul: "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, UNTIL Christ be FORMED in you" (Gal. 4:19). The New English Bible says, "I am in travail with you over again until you take the shape of Christ." The Amplified Bible reads "I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you!" Wuest's Translation renders, "I am again striving with intense effort and anguish until Christ be outwardly expressed in you."
In looking at a piece of petrified wood we can see this. One time it was wood, NOW IT IS ROCK. For something has happened to it. Certain minerals entered into every cell of that piece of wood and wrought a complete change in it. This process continued until that piece of wood had become rock. Same shape, same size and it has exactly the same cell structure. But what a great change has taken place! THIS IS WHAT GOD IS DOING IN US. Something is happening to us. We do not understand all about it, but we know that there is a change going on in our innermost beings. It is God permeating us with Himself. God is impregnating us with Himself. God is taking over, filling even our very cells with all He is and will be. This change is taking place in our inner selves, in our minds, and even in our bodies. This process shall continue until we arrive at the condition of being saturated with God. God shall so fill us, shall so overwhelm us that we take on the very characteristics of God.
I think the highest privilege that scripture puts before us is surely that Christ will be glorified IN us - that HE will be admired IN US. Think of it, my brethren, so completely has the image of the earthly passed away - so completely is the image of the heavenly gained that CHRIST is seen, CHRIST is admired in us! It is not the believer that is admired, glorified though he be. It is CHRIST who is admired IN HIM. All that the saints are radiates HIS glory. It is in HIS beauty they are arrayed - in HIS glory they shine. The image they wear is HIS - HIS blood has bought them, and HIS hand formed them. They shine as the sun in that heavenly glory, but only in HIS light, and for HIS praise. This is not the hour for any self-exaltation, nor for the promotion of "my ministry" or "my kingdom," for it is HE who is coming to be GLORIFIED IN US. Many think that the call to sonship is for their glorification - but it is not so. While it is true that we share His glory, not until He has shared with us of HIS GLORY do we have anything that is glorious. 'The Christ, being revealed in us, does not exalt us, because we are not the one being revealed, HE IS, therefore this exalts HIM! Little wonder that He is purging, pruning, sifting, bringing us to such absolute nothingness, so that the only one left to be revealed is THE CHRIST. We have dwelt upon this - our hearts have burned within us as we have gazed upon the picture of our future which the Spirit of God has drawn! Blessed day, when every lineament (facial distinction) shall speak the praise of Christ! When His image will be so imprinted upon us that it will be HE who is seen, and HE who is admired, when the universe of God gazes upon the body of Christ.
Though it is wondrously true that it is HE who must be glorified in all, it is also true that HE has purposed to be glorified IN US. Notice - He will not be glorified in Himself, nor in the angels, nor in the scriptures, nor in heaven, nor in the millennium - but IN HIS SAINTS. When Paul wrote to the Ephesian Church, he spoke about "the truth as it is IN JESUS" (Eph. 4:21). But the beloved John amplified the truth in these words, "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, WHICH THING IS TRUE IN HIM AND IN YOU" (I Jn. 2:6,8). Initially, the truth was in God, because He is a God of truth. The truth was recorded for us in the holy scriptures: "Thy word is truth" (Jn. 17:17). The truth became embodied in Jesus Christ, who said: "I am the way, the truth and the life" (Jn. 14:6). The truth comes to us even by the Holy Spirit: "When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth" (Jn. 16:13). Finally, the truth must find its embodiment and expression, its manifestation and revelation, in and through the body of Christ. If light is the expression of God in Christ, who said, "I am the light of the world" (Jn. 8:12), if "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path" (Ps. 119:105), it must be true in us: "YE are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." If it is true in Him, it must be true in us. HE was full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:14), so we read with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, "and great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:33). If grace is part of the expression of God in Jesus Christ, then it must be the expression of God in us also.
Why tell people things that are only true in Jesus Christ, but which do not work in us? No, if it is true in Him, it must be true in us, for He is the Head of the whole body of the sons. If it is operating in His life, it must come to be operating in our lives. He is come, not only to be our Saviour, but our Lord and our Life. "Be ye holy, as He which has called you is holy." If holiness is true in Him, then holiness must be true in us. "Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Mat. 5:48). If perfection is true in Jesus Christ, then perfection must be true in us. "God is spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:24). Jesus Christ worshipped the Father, Jesus Christ loved the Father, Jesus Christ did His Father's will. Thank God that He did find a man in whom His will, His love, His power, His grace, His truth, His holiness and His life could find a dwelling place and expression. But would it not be sad if there were not a people today, the body of Christ, saved by His blood, cleansed by the washing of water by the word, indwelt by His Spirit, in whom that same thing is true that is true in Him? Jesus said in His prayer in the seventeenth chapter of John: "That the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (Jn. 17:26). If the love of God is truly expressed in Jesus Christ, then it must be truly expressed in us. If He loves and we do not love, if He is in the light and we are in darkness, if He is expressing the grace of God and we are proclaiming hellfire and damnation then what is true in Him is not yet true in us. Whatever is true in Him, may God make it true in all His sons. Not just for our sakes, but for other's sakes, that they may open their hearts and let God do something in them. They will see the manifestation of Christ in you, and glorify God in you.
I am reminded of the story I heard once about a little seven-year-old boy who went to a gospel meeting. He went on Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night. On Friday night, following the meeting, he ran out to the parking lot following the preacher. The little boy said, "Let me ask you something. You say I have to receive Jesus Christ into my life." The evangelist replied, "That's right." "I'm seven years old. How big is Jesus?" "He's pretty good size because He's a carpenter. " "That's what I thought. If I were to receive Him into me, wouldn't He stick out?" "Son, you've got the message. More and more HE'D STICK OUT!"
To which I would reverently add - you will never in a million years see the Christ coming again until you can see Him coming in His body which is His habitation for evermore. Again I quote: "How we have scanned the media news and sifted through newspapers and journals scratching for tidbits of evidence that the condition of world affairs heralds His soon return. How we have been so furtively 'raptured' and deceived by all the latest 'anti-christ' propaganda, and 'beast' stories, and '666' contrivances in some vain effort to pinpoint His appearing; to say, 'Look here!' or 'Lo, there!' But this, dear saints - the second coming of the Lord Jesus - is not the mystery! The Word is sure that 'this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.' The mystery hidden from ages past, but now made known to His own, is not that Christ is coming again, but that HE IS COMING I-N HIS SAINTS! Walking the earth in His body of flesh and bone! Soon to be manifested in the fullness of His power and glory to subdue every principality and power that would usurp His sovereignty. The Christ who shall sit upon the throne of His everlasting Kingdom to rule all nations with a rod of iron is the Christ that is nigh at hand" -end quote.
God will not allow us to refuse to see the Christ in each other and then look upon Him in some other form. We will have to recognize Him in our brethren. God will not satisfy our carnal nature by allowing us to see Jesus descending from heaven in clouds of glory while we pass by His body on earth and refuse to see Him in them. It is this message that is coming to us today, it is necessary that we see Him in those who are called and chosen and faithful. If I want to see the Christ I look at you because that is where He is forming Himself and manifesting Himself and glorifying Himself. The body of Christ is not something apart from Christ, not just something the Christ has formed as a separate entity. The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth IS CHRIST in the earth! When this precious knowledge becomes sweet to our soul we begin to look at one another and BEHOLD HIM. We are looking for HIS APPEARING in His temple, which temple ye are. "And unto them that LOOK FOR HIM shall HE APPEAR..." (Heb. 9:28).
The question is just this, child of God - are you looking for HIM? When you see your brother and sister in Christ, are you looking for HIM? Or do you behold only their flesh? Are you looking at the outward weaknesses, errors, shortcomings; are you looking at an unfinished product and judging it in its present state; or are you LOOKING FOR HIM? You say, "Well, I've looked for Him in my brothers and sisters and I've been so disappointed." I do not hesitate to tell you that you didn't look deep enough. Have you looked deep enough? The truth is certain - unto them that look for HIM shall HE APPEAR! Do you see Christ in your fellow believers? Are you looking for HIM to appear? Are you looking for HIM? As we look at our brethren we are not to look for the faults, the failures, the mistakes and the imperfections - we are to look for HIM! You will see exactly what you look for. LOOK FOR HIM AND HE SHALL APPEAR. If you do not see Him in your brother, speak a word to him, encourage him, impart something of the Christ to him, minister unto him. Then look for HIM to APPEAR. Your vision will become changed and your eye will become single unto the glory of the Lord in His people.
The Christ that we preach is nigh at hand. "He is not far from every one of us," the apostle Paul says. "Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.) But what saith it? The Word (Christ) is NIGH THEE, EVEN IN THY MOUTH, AND IN THY HEART" (Rom. 10:6-8). "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and for ever." Not one pang or joy of earth Has He forgotten; not one purpose of His life or death or resurrection or ascension has He abandoned. "This same Jesus" who toiled and prayed and wept and suffered is living today as surely as when He trod the earth. Unless we are sure that He is unchanged and unchangeable, that He is right here WITHIN US in every turn of life as really as He was in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, unless we live daily in the power of this, our life will never be pure, we will never see His works, we will never be sure that He cares for us, that He wishes to perfect us, that He is guiding our lives and bringing us unto the Father. Therefore, why strain your eyes to pierce the clouds? The cloud that hides Christ from us is in ourselves, in our love of self, in our blind adherence to traditions, in our devotion to the world. Let us ask God to send the wind of His Spirit, that bloweth where it listeth, to sweep it aside, and then we will see Christ AS OUR LIFE at every step of the journey. Why stand gazing up into heaven for a Christ whom we may find in our own hearts?