KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who 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" (Phil. 3:20-21).

"Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen... Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (I Cor. 15:12,13,51).

Of all the dreams the heart of man has ever entertained, none has been more desirable, precious, and worthy of attainment, regardless of the cost, than the dream of immortality. Let's be honest; if there was an elixir that was invented guaranteed to give immortality to our physical bodies, we would all buy it and drink it! Kings and emperors who have conquered the world would gladly have exchanged all they had gained for immortality. But all the wealth of all the nations that lay prostrate before their victorious swords, even combined with all the riches amassed in their vast treasure houses, could not buy them so much as one single second's extension of time.

"It is appointed unto man once to die," says the Word of God. And, short of the coming of Jesus Christ, nothing would ever have changed that. It is as inevitable as God Himself can make it. Millionaires may offer their doctors vast fortunes to prolong their lives a month ... a day... at least an hour...or even a few minutes. But there comes a time when all the money in the world cannot stay the hand of death. The word "death" has many meanings to many people. To some it means the final and futile end of all their efforts - the leaving behind of all that they have striven for all their lives. There were no pockets in the ancient burial shroud, for those departing this world take with them only what they have in their hearts. All other treasures - no matter how valuable, or what the cost to the individual accumulating them - are left behind. Then, too, there is the sorrow of departing with loved ones. This is death's most devastating blow - the absence of someone we love so dearly. And, if this were the end, we would be most miserable indeed. BUT IT DOES NOT END THERE!

The resurrection from the dead is indeed a thing which seems incredible to the mind of the natural man. Yet almost two milleniums ago Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed by the Spirit of God these startling words: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die" (Jn. 11:25-26). This, of course, is the greatest thing anybody could ever know and this assurance centers in Jesus Christ and in His resurrection. This is the hope and the only hope of all mankind. Until Christ came into the world men had no hope. We do not realize that today. We think that people have always had hope. But that is not so. Except for those few people who clung to the promises of God given in the Old Testament, most of the world dwelt in absolute hopelessness. There was no substantial promise; there was no concrete evidence; there was nothing but the vain wish which was so often the father of the thought that perhaps people who died lived still in another world, or should come back and live again. Everywhere, people watched with great despair as their loved ones were lowered into the grave. "If a man die, shall he live again?" was the burning question left unanswered. There were nothing but shadowy unsubstantial wishes that filled the hearts of men. And in the night watches, those cold doubts came swirling into the heart and mind, chilling the soul; thoughts that came right out of the sepulcher and the tomb.

But then...Jesus came and all was changed! Life and immortality were brought to light by Christ and His resurrection from the dead. The dark door of death was broken down, and One stepped back into this world from that dread realm. This was no vain speculation; this was a CERTAINTY! Hundreds of credible witnesses saw Him, talked with Him, touched Him, held Him. This was no mere argument but a resurrected Christ! This was nothing like the pale hopes of the Egyptians who thought that their people would come back and through some transmigration of the soul would go into one sort of animal after another until finally they made it back into human form again. This was nothing like the foolish hopes of the Eastern religions and so-called Metaphysics who trusted in the reincarnation of their souls into mortal human bodies again and again throughout long ages, to bring them ultimately to perfection and oneness with God. Instead of reincarnation the Bible teaches resurrection. This was nothing like the early Greeks described by Homer in the Odyssey, where Odysseus and Achilles go into the nether world and see these miserable shades, the ghosts of people who had died. What a terrible picture they paint, where all alike are miserable. Ghosts flit aimlessly about, some more tormented than the rest, but none finding joy or satisfaction, until Achilles says, "I would rather be a poor paid servant in a poor rnan's house and be above ground than be king of kings among the dead."

Jesus Christ came and offered no vain speculation or philosophical argument, but offered His living body as the One that had risen from the dead. Christ arose from the dead and that was the greatest moment in the history of this world. He declared,."Because I live, ye shall live also" (Jn. 14:19). What a wonderful thing that is, to live forevermore! To live forevermore in a new body with no more pain, no more aches, no more arthritis, no more back trouble, no more gout, no more cancer, no more weakness, ageing, nor death! All of that is gone. We shall have a new body, fashioned after His own body of glory and power, a body of immortality and incorruption, where the sting and the dark victory of death shall be forever abolished. Praise His name!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a certainty beyond all question. Our faith as Christians has no basis if the Christ who was born at Bethlehem, and died on Calvary, is still within a Palestinian tomb; if He did not reanimate that body by the Holy Ghost and rise in a bloodless body from that sepulcher of stone. "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished" (I Cor. 15:14-18).

The Word of God bears immutable testimony to the fact that Jesus Christ arose triumphant over death, hell and the grave. Jesus' humanity was "swallowed up" completely by divinity and spirit. In the days of His flesh He made Himself subject to the law of the earth, earthly. He who knew no limitations became subject to the limitations of His own creation. At His birth He entered this earth realm as a normal human baby boy. There was no halo, nor did He wave at the shepherds as they entered the stable that starlit night in Bethlehem, announcing from the manger, "Hi, fellows, I was expecting you!" He was born and He grew up as any other person. He showed His humanity continually; He hungered, He thirsted, He grew weary, He wept, He slept and lived as a man. However, in His resurrection His humanity was made subject unto the law of spirit and divinity. The risen, glorified Christ will never again suffer in the flesh; neither shall He hunger, sleep, weep, thirst, grow weary, older, or weaker, or be controlled by the fleshly realm of the world system or the laws thereof. He is forever the resurrected and glorified Christ of glory! He completely and forever transcends all laws of cohesion, adhesion, gravity, inertia, interference and resistance. During the time He was on earth after His resurrection, He wrapped Himself in His majesty in such a way, that awe and reverence filled the hearts of His disciples. Suddenly, He appeared right in the midst of them, with the doors closed and bolted. How did He get in? Did someone leave the window open? No, He didn't slip in through the window or a hole in the wall. He walked through the spirit world and out of it right into the physical world. He possessed the ability to supersede all physical laws and limitations. He had a spiritual body, a celestial body - a house from heaven. When His disciples would have entered into closer intimacy, or would have constrained Him to be to them as He was before His death, He vanished out of their sight.

One of the most significant statements ever uttered by Jesus was made in prayer on that dark and sorrowful night before the crucifixion. He said, "I have GLORIFIED Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self WITH THE GLORY WHICH I HAD WITH THEE BEFORE THE WORLD WAS" (Jn. 17:4-5). Who can begin to comprehend this? Generally, when people think of the glory of Christ they think of the glory He had while on earth: His holiness of life, the miracles, the teachings, the love, humility, meekness and mercy that flowed so graciously from His life and ministry. Those things indeed characterize a great glory. Jesus spoke of it. "I have glorified Thee on the earth" - on the earth plane. But now the blessed Son speaks of another glory as high above the glory He revealed on earth as are the heavens high above the earth. With the most intense desire He petitions the Father, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I HAD WITH THEE BEFORE THE WORLD WAS!" Come and hearken to what this divine message has to tell us of the eternal glory of the Son, in whom the Father speaks to us. Come and see how truly He is one with God, and dwells in a glory beyond that which can be either seen or known in the earth realm! To be glorified WITH THINE OWN SELF is to be ONE IN THE FATHER; to be not merely the Son, but God. The deeper our insight into the true Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, the more confident shall we be that He will, by His divine power, make us partakers of His very own glory.

We find arrayed before us here TWO GLORIES. Both glories are uniquely the glory of Christ. The one, the lesser, is His glory as He walked upon earth as a man revealing the Father on the earth plane, in a body of flesh; the other, the greater, is the glory which He had before the world was, and which, having passed through death and into resurrection, He now possesses once more. What is the difference between these two glories, and what do these mean for those apprehended unto sonship to God?

I would draw your reverent attention to these significant words of inspiration found in Phil. 2:5-9. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him..." The Amplified Bible is so expressive here: "Let this same attitude and purpose and mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus - Who, although being ... one with God and in the form of God, possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God, did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained; but stripped Himself of all priviledges and rightful dignity so as to assume the guise of a servant, in that lie became like men and was born a human being. And after He had appeared in human form He abased and humbled Himself still further and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross! Therefore God has highly exalted Him..."

In this wonderful passage we have a summary of all the most precious truths that cluster about the person of the Son of God. There is first His wonderful divinity: "in the form of God," "equal with God." Then comes the mystery of Him laying aside that glory in that phrase of deep and inexhaustible meaning: "He stripped Himself," "He emptied Himself." The humiliation follows: "The form of a servant," "made in the likeness of men," "found in fashion as a man." Then comes the crushing and mortification of suffering and death: "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." And all is crowned by His glorious exaltation: "God hath highly exalted Him!" Christ as God Christ becoming man, Christ as man in humiliation revealing the glory of the Father in a body of flesh, and Christ in glory as Lord of all: such are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge this passage contains.

The two glories of sonship are here: firstly, the glory He had with the Father before the world was; secondly, the glory He had on earth. Then follows the glory to which He has now been exalted which is one with that glory that He had from eternity.

The great truth we want to grasp here is that Christ dwelt from eternity in the form, the essence, the nature and the being of God. In that divine nature He was eternal, untemptable and incorruptible. But when He laid aside that glory, emptying Himself of it, taking upon Him the form and nature of man, He, the ETERNAL ONE, subjected Himself to the dread power of DEATH, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. When the Christ laid aside His eternal heavenly glory, the UNTEMPTABLE ONE took upon Himself all the frailties and weaknesses of human nature so that the One who CANNOT be tempted was found in a nature that COULD be tempted and indeed He was in all points TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE. James says that "every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust (desire), and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin" (James 1:14-15). Was Jesus truly tempted in all points like as we are, or did He have some advantage over us, some inherent quality of divinity, some unique spiritual power which enabled Him to be oblivious to the cravings and demands of the flesh? May God in His great mercy give us a true insight into the glory of what is offered us in this truth - that our High Priest, whom we have in the heavenlies, is One who is able to sympathize with us in each and every circumstance, because He knows, from personal experience, exactly what we feel and face. Yes, that God might give us courage to draw nigh unto Him, He has placed upon the throne of heaven One out of our midst, of whom we can be certain that, because He Himself lived on earth as a man, He understands us perfectly, is prepared to have patience with our weakness, and give us just the help we need to enter into His glory.

The point I want to make crystal clear is that when Christ left the eternal glory of the Father-realm to take upon Himself the glory of the Son in human flesh, He EMPTIED HIMSELF of all His prerogatives as Diety and willfully, yea, deliberately subjected Himself to the finite restrictions and debilitating limitations of this physical, material world. As God He had been infinitely rich, while as man He became inconceivably poor. As God He had been the Omnipotent One, but as man He could do absolutely nothing more than any mortal man except as the Father worked through Him. As God He had been eternal and incorruptible, but as man He grew tired and weary, weak and faint, and died an ignominious death upon a cross. As God He could not be tempted with any evil, but as man He was tempted in every point as is common to men. As God He was Omniscient, possessing all wisdom and knowledge, while as man He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Lk. 2:52). As God He had been the Omnipresent One who filled all things, but as man He lay a helpless infant in a manger and throughout His life could never be in more than one place at a time. As God He had been pure spirit essence, but as man He was a physical flesh and blood human being.

Christ's glory as the Son of man was thus A FAR LESSER GLORY than the glory He had in the Father realm before the foundation of the world. He had faithfully glorified the Father on the earth plane, making Him visible through a body of flesh, as a life lived out, yet, when He prayed that He might be glorified with the glory which He had before the world was, He was asking to be released from the earthly, material, physical form He had assumed, with its human nature and limitations and restrictions, back into the untemptable, eternal and incorruptible realm of divine spirit life. His yearning was to be forever freed from the whole dreadful realm of physical weakness, limitation and confinement. This was to shortly take place through His RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD.

When we speak of the resurrection of Christ, we enter a new and glorious realm entirely, for no man other than Christ Jesus our Lord has until now experienced the glory of such a resurrection. In the glory of this resurrection is seen not only the glory which Christ now has in His exaltation, but also that marvelous glory which was His before the world was. Let us consider this glory.

When Christ our Lord rose from the dead, He was raised not in corruption but in INCORRUPTION. That which is incorruptible is forever beyond the power of corruption, decay, or death. God Himself is said to be incorruptible and we are said to be born again of incorruptible seed by the Word of God that liveth forever. This incorruptible life now resides in our inner man, but has not been manifested in our outer bodies. Death has no power over the incorruptible. Thus of the resurrection body it is written: "It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body" (I Cor. 15:42-44). Paul declares that this corruptible MUST PUT ON INCORRUPTION. The body of the corruptible man is the body of death, but the body of the incorruptible man is the body of the resurrection, a body beyond the power of death. When Jesus rose from the dead, He arose incorruptible. He had no blood as we know blood. He had forever laid aside that blood which had been the life of his mortal flesh and was now quickened in His flesh by the life of God, life immortal, incorruptible and eternal.

Many precious saints have claimed that they have already put on immortality, that they have here and now by-passed the grave and will never die. I would overthrow the faith of none, for it is my deep conviction that we are living in the generation that shall see the long-awaited manifestation of the sons of God; but I do say that the body of glory and incorruption is the body of the RESURRECTION. When the Kingdom of God unfolds in its next stage of power and glory in the earth, the sons of God will be manifest to the world and to every nation, tribe, tongue and people on the face of the whole earth in the full glory of their RESURRECTION. Being children of the resurrection, they will be seen as INCORRUPTIBLE BEINGS and they will rule the world and bless all the nations of earth as resurrected and incorruptible men. Just as Jesus had power after His resurrection to appear and disappear, to pass right through a wall or locked door, to disclose Himself or to hide His identity, taking various forms to ascend to heaven and return to the earth, to issue instructions concerning the Kingdom of God, even to eat and drink if He wished, so also shall the incorruptible and glorified sons of God have power. All that Jesus demonstrated and demonstrates in His resurrection and glorification the sons of God shall be in the fullness of their resurrection and glorification, for they are destined to share the totality of His glory.

Jesus was the firstfruit of the resurrection. "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept ... for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end (of the resurrection)" (I Cor. 15:20-24). Paul tells us in Rom. 8:19-23 that the whole creation is in travail to know the power of the resurrection as it shall be unveiled in the sons of God. "For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Because the creation itself SHALL BE DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION into the glorious liberty (from death) of the children of God. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption (placement as sons), to wit, the redemption of our bodies."

This glorious realm of incorruption which lies beyond the power of temptation, sin, limitation, sickness, sorrow and death belongs to the children of God, but, blessed be God! it is likewise the hope of ALL CREATION. One of the fundamental laws of nature is that one cannot dispense what he does not himself possess; on the spiritual plane this means that one cannot minister that of which he has not himself been made partaker. I therefore declare to you that although the glory of the Son of God on earth throughout His three and a half years of ministry and manifestation was truly marvelous beyonds words to describe, still it was a glory which was limited in the extreme. When the Christ took upon Him a body of flesh and the nature of man, He willfully subjected Himself to the limitations and restrictions of that which is material, earthly and mortal. Jesus did not walk among men as the incorruptible God, but as mortal man. It was as a natural, physical mortal earthling that He was tempted; He hungered; He thirsted; He was bound by time and space; He knew weakness; He wept; He slept; He suffered; He died. The life of God resided within His inner spirit, but that life was confined, restrained and restricted by the bounds of the material world which He had taken upon Himself. It is manifest that His body was not an incorruptible body, else He could not have died though nailed to a thousand crosses! His own human nature was not of the incorruptible nature of God, else He could not have been TEMPTED in all points like as we are. Truly He emptied Himself, yea, stripped Himself of that incorruptible glory of the Father realm and, as man, as flesh, HE COULD NOT, though He were a Son, MINISTER THAT WHICH HE DID NOT HIMSELF POSSESS! If He laid it aside He did not have it. And if He did not have it, He could not give it. Oh! the mystery of it.

It is remarkable that during the few years of Jesus' earthly ministry He never performed one act, not even one miracle or wonder on the higher plane of incorruption. Every miracle Jesus did was in the realm of mortality. Jesus raised a number of folk from the dead, including Lazarus, the widow's son and the daughter of Jairus; but every person raised from the sleep of death was merely raised up again into the MORTAL LIFE to continue their lives for a season in the same old corruptible bodies. Each and every one of them DIED AGAIN! Think of it. Not one single person was raised up out of a corruptible body into an incorruptible body. It would be impossible for the world to even contain all the books that could be written about those astonishing signs and incredible wonders performed by the Son of God on earth; yet, all those works, mighty though they were, were restricted entirely to the plane of the physical, material and mortal. Jesus cleansed the lepers and healed every manner of sickness and disease among the people, but I do not hesitate to tell you that each and every one of those good people got sick again and eventually died! Those were miracles within the sphere of mortality, not ministrations of incorruptible life. Those wonderful deliverances were in all reality but short new leases on the corruptible existence of this body of death. Though Christ blessed men with healing and health and these were permitted to remain on earth for long series of years, yet He merely lengthened out the period of their mortal existence and NONE COULD AVOID THE FINAL CATASTROPHY.

Jesus did many other types of miracles. He began by turning water into wine. And it was very excellent wine, indeed. But just wine, nonetheless. It was composed of the same chemical elements as all fine wine. It was material, physical, earthly. It was consumed by flesh and blood bodies and a portion eliminated from those bodies as waste. Nothing incorruptible or celestial here! And yet it is written: "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and MANIFESTED FORTH HIS GLORY; and His disciples believed on Him" (Jn. 2: 11). Ah - He manifested forth His glory, but this was not the glory He had with the Father before the world was, but the lesser glory of manifesting the Father on the earth plane, in the world of the physical, material and mortal.

On another occasion Jesus fed more than five thousand people from five little loaves and two small fish. How we stand in awe before the majesty of such a miracle! but remember, dear ones, that even a wonder so marvelous as this is but a wonder on the physical plane. Bread and fish. Nothing more. Multiplied! And what have you? More bread and fish! Material bread. Physical fish. Perishable, corruptible items, both. The multitude ate of it and their bodily hunger was satisfied momentarily, their mortal bodies strengthened for a few fleeting hours and then all the old hunger and weakness returned. Nothing of eternal value there, nothing of incorruptible substance! One time Jesus caused the boat in which He and His disciples were sailing to move from the middle of the sea to the shore with a speed swifter than any modern rocket. Wonderful! you say. Yes, wonderful indeed on the earth plane, wonderful to the facinated eyes of poor finite mortals in their limitation and confinement to natural law, and their lack of understanding thereof. But still no ministration of the higher life of incorruption. The disciples who made this fantastic voyage with Jesus remained but natural men with carnal minds, unchanged and untransformed by heaven's life. Following this miracle creation was still groaning as it had been groaning for long milleniums - to be DELIVERED FROM THE BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION! Without doubt that same boat which made such a miraculous passage across the sea has long since decayed back into the earth or lies ruined on the bottom of the sea. And creation goes on groaning...

"For even the whole creation waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's sons to be made known - waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship. For ... the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption and gain an entrance into the glorious freedom of God's children" (Rom. 8:19,21). When Paul by inspiration penned these blessed words of hope he did not have in mind a manifestation of God's sons after the order of which Jesus was manifested while on earth. Jesus glorified the Father on the earth plane, and so do we; but this is not the glory yet to be revealed that we anticipate, neither is it the hope for which the whole creation is in travail. The creation is not groaning for another revival, nor for another evangelistic campaign, nor for another healing campaign, nor for more gifts of the Spirit, nor for more apostles and prophets and teachers, nor for more signs, wonders and miracles, nor yet for 144,000 flaming evangelists just like Jesus when He walked the shores of blue Galilee. For two milleniums we have had revival after revival, healing upon healing, signs and wonders and miracles in abundance, and none of them have ever brought forth the fullness of the Kingdom of God on earth, nor has even one of them or all of them put together ever delivered the creation from its bondage to corruption! The creation continues to groan in its bondage and we ourselves, groan within ourselves, as we wait for the disclosing of our sonship - the redemption of our bodies. It is not another "patch-up" job we want, but a full and complete and eternal deliverance from the whole dreadful realm of corruption in spirit, soul and body!

Jesus clearly understood that He could never deliver the creation from its bondage to corruption so long as He remained Himself subject to this realm of mortality. He simply could not minister to men that which He had abrogated in coming to earth. Though He should have walked on earth for a million years in His body of humiliation, gaining in favor with the people and power over the nations through all those years, He still would not have been able to raise even one poor mortal up out of corruption into incorruption. It was necessary that He be resurrected Himself by the power and glory of the Father that He might be able then to minister even that resurrection life to a firstfruit company; that they, in turn, apprehending all that pertains to that life might be able then to minister it to the rest of creation. For this creation waits expectantly.

Let us give ear to Peter as his lips speak of the resurrection life of Christ in his tremendous sermon on the day of Pentecost. Notice that his message did not center in the Christ of the manger, nor in the Christ of teaching, nor in the Christ of healing, nor in the Christ of signs and wonders, nor alone in the Christ crucified, but in CHRIST RISEN FROM THE DEAD. "Ye men of Israel," he cries, "hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: whom GOD HATH RAISED UP, having loosed the pains of death... for David speaketh concerning Him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope: because Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to Me the ways of life" (Acts 2:22-25,31).

How we praise God and bless Him unceasingly for every temporal blessing so lavishly bestowed by His bountiful grace. We rejoice exceedingly in His provision of finances for our daily needs, for those healings which have preserved alive our bodies unto this day, for each sign and wonder which has quickened our faith and given assurance of His wonderful love, faithful care and gracious presence. We would not minimize the blessedness of any of these things, yet are aware that none of these are that for which creation, and we ourselves, are groaning. We cannot - dare not - be satisfied until we AWAKE IN HIS LIKENESS! The glory to which we are called as sons of God is not the glory Jesus had on earth, but the glory for which He prayed when His earth-walk was completed: "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." Paul wrote, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall YE also appear WITH HIM IN GLORY" (Col. 3:4). And Peter declared, "But the God of all grace ... hath called us unto HIS ETERNAL GLORY by Christ Jesus" (I Pet. 5:10).

I can assure you, precious friend of mine, that this resurrection glory, this eternal glory is the hope of all creation. We rejoice in the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit, in prophecies, visions, hearings, miracles, temporal blessings and provisions, but I must confess that I am saddened to see the Lord's people continually following after mere TEMPORAL SIGNS and PHYSICAL, MATERIAL, MORTAL BLESSINGS. I would not depreciate for one moment, nor in any measure, the manifold blessings and gracious provisions of God in this earthly realm of mortality and corruption. I, above all who read these lines, perhaps, can testify to God's absolute and unswerving faithfulness to miraculously supply every need in this earthly, temporal realm as He daily provides sustenance for my family and the wherewithal to mail out tens of thousands of articles and books to the elect of God each year. It is all the LORD'S DOING, and I can bear witness that never once in these nineteen years of publishing the Kingdom Bible Studies has His faithfulness failed, bless His name!

And yet it distresses my soul to see my sick brethren (as well as myself) healed by the power of God, only to behold them smitten again later by some other debilitating disease. What sorrow it brings to the human heart to see the precious men and women of God who have walked in the Spirit and have so mightily blessed God's people finally grow old and pass from our midst into the silence of the grave. I grow tired of healing the sick only to see them sick again. It is frustrating to pray for the same saints over, and over, and over again for the same problems and weaknesses. I am tired of seeing the dead raised (I personally know several people who have been raised from the dead) just to watch them ageing and weakening on their way into death again. I tire of signs and wonders which cater only to the flesh, and minister solely to the physical man on the level of mortality: food, raiment, money, jobs, and all the rest of the corruptible things of earth. I am deeply discontented with that which blesses men in the natural but then leaves them to carry on their lives in corruptible natures and bodies. How expressive the word which the Spirit selected when He inspired the apostle to write: "For in this (our earthly house) we groan, EARNESTLY DESIRING to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven... that mortality might be swallowed up of life" (II Cor. 5:1-5). Paul says that the whole creation GROANS. He says that WE ALSO GROAN ... that mortality might be swallowed up of life! "And He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given us His pledge of the Spirit" (II Cor. 5:5).

Christ shall minister His eternal glory to a firstfruit company of sons who shall in turn minister that same eternal glory to the creation. Think not, dear saints, that the ministry of the manifested sons of God shall consist in holding great salvation-healing campaigns, of merely emptying out hospitals as the sick are healed, of supernaturally and miraculously feeding the world's hungry and starving multitudes, or raising some dead people back to life again as Jesus did. What Jesus WAS is not the pattern for the manifested sons of God. The pattern is WHAT HE IS IN HIS ETERNAL GLORY. He has planted within each and every son of God an incorruptible SEED which shall in due time produce an INCORRUPTIBLE PEOPLE. The ministry of the sons of God will be to impart INCORRUPTIBLE LIFE so that ALL THINGS and ALL MEN may be raised up out of the realm of limitation and death into the glorious liberty of the ETERNAL SPIRITUAL ORDER. Glory!

Therefore the Spirit saith, "We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who 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" (Phil. 3:20-21). Here we have the top of the ladder, reaching into the celestial realm - the blessed end to which Christ and life in Him is to lead. Beloved brethren! Let us lay aside all presumption and purge ourselves of every form of deception. I admonish you this day - do not allow any man to deceive you into believing that he can in some way minister immortality to your mortal body - unless He himself dwells in an incorruptible body! Some have professed to have already put on immortality, to have even now passed over the grave; but it should be obvious to any thinking mind that the wrinkles in their skin, the redness in their tired eyes, the gray in their hair, the daily need for food, water, air and sleep, and the unchecked ageing of their bodies give the lie to their confession. Some have tried to teach people into immortality, some have attempted to confess or meditate into it, others have concocted a scheme for baptizing people into it, while others have foolishly hoped to live forever by eating health food. I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that all the fruitarians and vegetarians and food faddists of all previous generations are now lying in their graves along with all who subscribed to any other method or technique devised by man for the putting on of immortality. The word cannot be broken: "For our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: WHO SHALL CHANGE OUR VILE BODY..." How can corruption impart incorruption? How tan any man lift either himself or others out of the pit of corruption by his own corruptible boot straps? "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the TREE OF LIFE WHICH IS IN THE MIDST OF THE PARADISE OF GOD," saith the Lord. Let me present this Tree of Life: Christ, risen, glorified and exalted above all heavens! Christ enthroned in the glory He had with the Father before the world began. HE is the tree of life in the paradise of the Kingdom of God! The leaves of this tree are for the healing of the nations. The church in its walk in this corruptible realm has claimed to do the "greater works" of which Jesus spoke, but this is not so. The greater works will appear when this corruptible has fully put on incorruption and the sons of God are put on display in the fullness of His divine life and glory. When we consider the transcendent majesty and power of the glory of the resurrection unto incorruption, it seems but little wonder that these mighty sons of God will bring to pass a world wherein ALL THINGS ARE MADE NEW.

With what anticipation do we wait for this glorious manifestation! Meantime we are taught to believe: "We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body..." This is not meant merely for revelation, to be left for the future; for the full development of our life in sonship we must seek to enter into and appropriate it. We do this as we learn to triumph over death on every level. We do it as we learn to look to Christ as the Lord of our body, claiming its entire consecration, securing even here and now victory over the terrible dominion sin has had in the body. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death" (James 1:15). We do it as we allow the powers of the coming age to possess us, and to lift us up into a life in the heavenly places, to enlarge our hearts and our views, to anticipate, even here and now, the things which have never entered into the heart of man to conceive.

Sons of God! Seek to know CHRIST as your redemption. Let this be the crown of your life in sonship. Do not seek immortality in the body realm first, or only, apart from the knowledge of Christ in all His other aspects. But seek it truly as that unto which they are meant to lead you. Nothing will fit you for incorruption but faithfulness in every step of the putting on of the MIND OF CHRIST.. Seek Him as your wisdom and the wisdom will lead you into the mysteries of complete redemption. Seek Him as your righteousness and dwell clothed upon with Him in that inner sanctuary of the Father's favor and presence. Seek Him as your sanctification; the experience of His power to make you holy, spirit, soul and body will quicken you to a power of holiness that shall not cease its work until the sin which causes death has been abolished in your being. Seek Him as your life, and live, even now, in the light of that glory. And as you seek to experience within yourself to the full, the power of HIS TRANSFORMING LIFE, your heart will be enlarged to see the position man has been destined to occupy in the universe, as having all things made subject to him, and you shall for your part be fitted to live worthy of that high and heavenly calling!

There is a great misunderstanding among many of the Lord's people about the nature of the resurrection body. Many have speculated concerning the glorified body or the body of glory, insisting that it would have to be a body appearing about thirty years of age, in the prime of life and at the zenith of its powers. We have imagined a race of men, all gods and goddesses of stunning beauty and unexcelled physical perfection, the ideal specimen of humanity, flawless and without any physical limitations. But such is not a scriptural nor a spiritually enlightened view of the resurrection body. In forthcoming issues I hope to deal in depth with this important thought, and in closing this message will but briefly touch upon it.

This brings us to a most wonderful and momentous statement of truth. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote, "The natural man RECEIVETH NOT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED" (I Cor. 2:14). Jesus stated the same truth in different words, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he CANNOT SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD" (Jn. 3:3). It cannot be said of the unregenerate man that he is living in contact with the spiritual world of God. Since that fateful day in Eden's garden when man was banished from the glories of the celestial realm the natural man has been dead, unresponsive to all spiritual things and has positively no communion on the plane of divine life. The natural man functions and knows in this present material world of corruption and death while being completely dead to the higher realm of God and spiritual realities. And so, until a man receives of God's Spirit - the Spirit of God is that which KNOWS - it is impossible for him to have any understanding, either of God, or His Word, or His ways.

The Holy Spirit who knoweth all things has taught us in the simplest and most beautiful words that "we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are TEMPORAL; but the things which are not seen are ETERNAL" (II Cor. 4:18). All the things which can be seen, heard, tasted, touched or smelled by the five physical senses or discerned by the psychological senses of the soul are TEMPORAL and are passing away. This was already a fact from the beginning, for where is the scripture, O man, that tells us that in that distant dawn the plants were immortal, or that the beasts of the field possessed eternal life, or that the roses never faded or dropped their petals, that the leaves of the trees withered not, or that no tool in the hand of man ever wore out? I declare to you that not only today are the things which are seen TEMPORAL, but the things which can be seen HAVE ALWAYS BEEN TEMPORAL since the day they came fresh from the hand of the Creator. The awe-inspiring wonder of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is that God held out to His creation the potential to be TRANSFORMED and TRANSFERRED out of the realm of the natural into the Kingdom of the Spiritual. I Jn. 2:17 has always been true: "And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God ABIDETH FOREVER." Can you think of any visible thing that is not passing away? Every form of life upon the earth is passing away, and the earth itself is passing away. The towering peaks of the majestic mountain ranges of earth's vast continents are slowly but surely, age after age, eroding and crumbling away. The visible universe of suns and planets and moons and stars and innumerable galaxies will one day be rolled together like a scroll and the magnitudes of time and space shall be no more.

We know that God is spirit, but what does that mean? Well, spirit is that which cannot be changed, destroyed, damaged, or hurt in any way. Spirit does not deteriorate. It cannot grow tired or old. It is the opposite of matter. Matter is always changing, deteriorating. While you read this page, on an infinitesimal scale the paper is actually wearing out. The clothes that adorn your body are wearing out. The building in which you dwell is weakening day by day. Your body, too, is wearing out - and some day all these things will be but dust. True, it will take a long time according to our ideas for some of these things to happen, but happen they will. There was a time when great cities filled with imposing buildings and splendid monuments flourished in Africa and Asia, cities of which every trace has now disappeared, for they have become one with the desert sands. This is inevitable because matter is always changing - wearing out! "Man who is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not" (Job 14:1-2).

This is really a splendid thing because it means that the world is constantly being renewed. It is splendid that old and imperfect things should disappear in order that newer and better things may take their place. If clothing did not wear out, many people would continue wearing it for many years until it became out of style and dingy with dirt, instead of which we get new clothes at frequent intervals. If automobiles did not wear out we might still be using the primitive models of sixty years ago. Who would want to eternally preserve something that is imperfect, soiled, ruined, or insufficient? Because every thing of the material realm IS IMPERFECT God has, in His great wisdom and goodness, arranged it so that all things of this realm ARE TEMPORAL and are passing away.

Material forms wear out, but the Spirit of God does not wear out because the Spirit is ETERNAL SUBSTANCE. Our fleshly bodies of humiliation are composed of matter, whereas our spirits are the offspring of God's divine Spirit. Herein lies the folly of those who presume to have already put on immortality in their physical bodies and cannot die. I have known many precious and sincere brethren who believed that they had by-passed the grave, but I can tell you that today all of them are both dead and buried with the exception of a few who have not yet reached the age where death is a certainty. Hearken, my brother! and hear, my sister! the words of wisdom and understanding from the Almighty: "The things which are seen ARE TEMPORAL; but the things which are not seen ARE ETERNAL." The Spirit here reveals the great truth that there simply is no such thing as INCORRUPTIBLE MATTER, or unchanging forms of physical substance. There are no IMMORTAL PHYSICAL BODIES walking around anywhere on God's green earth! If they are composed of matter and visible then they are not eternal and cannot endure. It is a contradiction of terms. Nothing that is seen by the mortal eyes of men or perceived by the natural senses can be eternal by the very nature of things. There must be a transformation, a transferral from one kingdom to another.

The incorruptible body of the resurrection is not a material body at all, it is a SPIRIT BODY. The words of Paul to the Corinthians must be made very real to our hearts: "There are celestial (heavenly) bodies, and bodies terrestrial (earthly): but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. So... is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in CORRUPTION; it is raised in INCORRUPTION: it is sown in DISHONOR; it is raised in GLORY: it is sown in WEAKNESS; it is raised in POWER: it is sown a NATURAL BODY; it is raised a SPIRITUAL BODY. There is a NATURAL BODY and there is a SPIRITUAL BODY" (I Cor. 15:40,42-44). It is plain to see that our present bodies are "natural bodies." The "spiritual body" supersedes the "natural body" and is called in the Greek simply a SPIRIT BODY. The natural body and the spirit body belong to two entirely different kingdoms. The former is visible; the latter is invisible. The former is temporal; the latter is eternal. The former is of the earth; the latter is from heaven - out of the realm of spirit. "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building (body) of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon WITH OUR HOUSE WHICH IS FROM HEAVEN: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed (disem- bodied), but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life" (II Cor. 5:1-4).

Our "earthly house," our physical body, is characterized as a "tabernacle" or more correctly a "tent-house." The transient character of the earthly body is thus revealed by this symbol. This house is to be "dissolved." "Dissolved" is from a Greek word meaning "loosened down," as the ropes of a tent are loosened and the tent is taken down. The "spirit body," on the other hand, is described as a "building of God, eternal in the heavens." The metaphor changes, interestingly, from a "tent" to a "building," from that which can be "dissolved" to that which "abides." My beloved brethren! I have absolutely no desire whatever to have God embue with any eternal qualities this poor, imperfect, limited, restricted, humiliating, earthly, animal body! My hope of sonship rests not in preserving for either a thousand years or forever a body that must be washed, clothed, fed, rested, groomed, manicured, powdered and deodorized. There is another body, thank God! formed of the incorruptible flesh of the resurrected and glorified Christ of God and this marvelous body is of heaven even as my present body is of earth. I proclaim to you this day that as a man PUTS ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST he puts on not only the spirit of Christ but also the RESURRECTION BODY of Christ, and this body IS our house from heaven. Even as our earth body has come to us from Adam, and is Adam's body, so our spirit body comes from the Christ and is the body of His resurrection. As the pure and holy life of the Son of God is formed within us God shall also give us bodies worthy of such divine life, bodies capable of expressing all the wisdom and power and glory of that blessed realm beyond sin and death, yea, beyond time and space and matter!

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