THE GLORY BEFORE US

Romans 5: 1, 2; 1 Thessalonians 4: 13–18; Hebrews 2: 10–12; Revelation 21: 1–3

CKR I had a touch this morning that the glory is before us. There are many truths that are confirmed to us in our experiences at the Lord’s supper, which is one of the advantages and blessings that come out of that occasion and of the service of God that follows. Many of the truths that we touch on in occasions for enquiry into the Scriptures like this, and in our personal meditations, we find are confirmed by experience. I wondered if it would invigorate and stimulate us all to realise that the glory is before us. I thought we might first of all consider the early verses of Romans 5. The earlier chapters provide the basis by securing souls such as we are that have been blessed by the gospel. We have the truth of redemption in chapter 3, and justification in chapter 4, and then we are brought in chapter 5 to boasting in hope of the glory of God. You get some impression in Romans 5 that Paul is bringing these believers through to see that the glory is before them, that is a glorious realm is before them so they boast in hope of the glory of God. Their eyes, their souls and their affections are to be totally lifted from the scene of failure to a scene of divine satisfaction and divine glory.

We might get a touch in 1 Thessalonians 4 to see how actually we are going to be taken to glory. At that point, we will move from the realm of faith and we will actually be taken to glory. We might get help together in enquiring as to what will happen at the rapture. We often think of this passage as a great comfort. As older ones move on in age, and death draws nearer should the Lord not come soon, this passage is a comfort. There ought with each of us to be a desire for the Lord’s coming, which is nearer than it has ever been. Then we are actually to be taken to glory. You might say, ‘I am being taken to heaven’. Yes, but you are being taken to glory. Glory is more than a position. It is a condition, In Hebrews 2 you get the making perfect of the leader of their salvation through sufferings, in bringing many sons to glory. Then in verses 11 and 12 you get opened up the great truth as to

‘He that sanctifies and those sanctified being all of one’ and also “my brethren” and “the assembly”. Then we touch the eternal side as in Revelation 21. We should realise, as believers, that what is before us is eternity. It is a glorious condition that sin will never touch, and where the glory of God will pervade for ever and ever, a condition of absolute divine perfection. As individual vessels chosen through divine purpose, secured by redemption, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we form part of a vessel, the assembly, in which there will be glory to God eternally.

JTB(Gr) That sounds very profitable. What you have begun with in Romans 4 and 5 elevates the truth of the gospel. What you are bringing out is exactly what God has in His mind in the truth of the gospel. It is not only the forgiveness of sins—great and glorious as that is—but it has in mind a glorious answer to the heart of God Himself, does it not?

CKR I think the truth of the gospel, and the teaching of the gospel, and then the understanding by believers of the truths of the gospel, lay this glorious foundation. Then you begin to see how everything has been opened up for God by the resurrection of His Son. You begin to see how all the operations of God are with a view to opening up God’s realm, securing man on the basis of recovery, with man being reinstated in God’s presence in that sense by the moral and glorious work of Jesus. There is something that has been secured. He has been “delivered for our offences”—that is very touching—and “has been raised for our justification”, Romans 4: 25. Then having been justified on the principle of faith, I think the whole area of glory opens up before the believer.

JSp Is that how God would settle us and assure us? It has often been remarked that these first two verses in Romans 5 cover past, present and future. We have been justified that is past; we have peace—that is present; and we boast in hope of the glory of God—that is future. God would have us settled in these things.

CKR And as we are settled in these things, what a view we have before us! What it is to have such an experience that we can boast in hope of the glory of God. The believer can turn aside from all that is in the world and can boast in hope of the glory of God. It is not just getting through. There is a touch of victory in this, is there not?

TCM This epistle reminds us that all have come short of the glory of God, but as you say God has worked in Another at a higher level altogether in order to begin again.

CKR It is like the result of the potter working again, as we had yesterday (Jeremiah 18: 1–6). The securing of these vessels is such that souls are established and have a prospect. What a prospect we have, that we can view by faith and by the Spirit, and that we can boast in hope of the glory of God. I think it means that you are boasting in what God has secured for Himself.

AMB What would boasting in hope of the glory of God mean for us, as believers now who are enjoying the things set out in the verses we have read in Romans?

CKR I think as you travel the journey that is involved in the teaching set out here, and by experience, you see that your offences and your past history have been dealt with by the glorious One who vicariously took these liabilities on, “delivered for our offences” involves His suffering. Then you see that He has been raised for our justification—you are entirely clear of your history in the sight of God. Such a person is proving the benefit of justification which is for another world, not for this world, and enjoys peace. And then boasting in hope—I think is the triumph that is secured in the heart and soul and being of a converted person, so that you are boasting in hope of another environment altogether. You have a relationship with God that is known and enjoyed.

AMB This is very comprehensive, and it is also very establishing. We might think of the word ‘boasting’ as meaning that people are making a lot of themselves or of what they have done. But the believer is never to boast in himself; he boasts in Christ and in hope of the glory of God. That is absolutely assured and it is on the other side of death, and that is glorious. He has been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father (Romans 6: 4).

CKR You are no longer a downtrodden sinner, but a triumphant believer secured through the gospel and lifted from the concern and anxiety about your past history to realise that God looks upon you as justified in Christ. He is a risen and glorious Man who is the Centre of another world. Your whole being has become attracted to that realm, and so you boast in hope of the glory of God. There are not many people boasting in hope these days. We ought to have the experience of this more and more.

JTB(Gr) Paul could boast in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the basis for it.

CKR That is right. The basis is laid in these verses in Romans 4. Everything has been righteously and fully and entirely met by the work of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, so that we can begin to see that God sets glory before the believer. The believer has a future in glory. The reason I am there is that Christ is there.

KM I was thinking of the line of the hymn, ‘Once from glory’s height descending’ (Hymn 414). The Lord came from that glorious position, and then through His death and resurrection there will be a glorious throng with Him, many sons.

CKR We get that in Hebrews 2—“in bringing many sons to glory”—what a triumph of divine operations that that is the case. God has operated; Christ has come; the offences have been dealt with; justification has been secured in His resurrection. We therefore boast in hope of the glory of God.

JSp Is there a sense in which glory is a cumulative thought? I was thinking of the line of the hymn, ‘Every step fresh glory teaches’ (Hymn 364). There is glory attached to every movement of God.

CKR That has to be so, because of whom we are speaking. God does everything according to His own holiness and nature. He has operated to bring out His own attributes, in righteousness and power. But He is also securing everything for a scene of glory for His own eternal satisfaction. God’s purposes lie behind all of that and its accomplishment. His counsels bring out how it has all been achieved. But God has glory before Him. He will dwell in glory, and He has fitted and is fitting persons according to His purpose. He will clothe persons with bodies of glory to be fitted for that realm eternally.

JSp The final glory will be God’s rest.

CKR That is what I thought of in reading Revelation 21, where God introduces that, the final touch of glory. The assembly as a glorious divine conception, secured in the present dispensation, is the substantial result of that, achieved.

DAB What is the difference between what you are bringing before us and what we have in Colossians, “which is Christ in you the hope of glory”, Colossians 1: 27?

CKR The truth of the gospel in Colossians is producing that result inwardly—Christ “in you” the hope of glory. God is forming the characteristics of that blessed Person in the saints, and that is anticipatively looking towards the glory. “Christ in you the hope of glory”

was the thought in the apostle’s mind, and he wanted to present every man perfect in Christ in that setting. Paul was given light as to the divine ideal for every soul, and the operations of the truth of the gospel, and resurrection lays a glorious basis for the opening up of all of that. Paul laboured; he presented Christ.

DAB The Spirit in a believer, as Christ is received, is really working to this end. The opening up of what you are saying is a reality to us.

CKR It comes back to the value of the service of the Holy Spirit. It is by the Holy Spirit’s power that we boast in hope of the glory of God. The apostle comes to that a couple of verses further on. So the reception of the Spirit in the believer leads to boasting in hope. I think we see that in the service of God as it proceeds. Saints are boasting in the joy of divine things.

DTS Say a word about faith. It is very important. We need faith for this.

CKR That is right. It has been said that the service of God is maintained in faith and enjoyed by the power of the Spirit. Otherwise we could fall into imagination—we never want to do that. We do want to deepen in personal faith. That is very important. Faith is the substantiating of things, the conviction of things (Hebrews 11: 1). It is God’s gift to us so that these things might be real.

ADM Following on from what you have said about the matter of the Spirit being so important, it is interesting to see, in that wonderful chain in Romans 8, that it begins with foreknowledge and ends with being glorified (Romans 8: 29, 30). The apostle seems to be suggesting that although it is future in actuality, it can be enjoyed now.

CKR I think that. God has glorified you and me by the gift of the Spirit. I wondered about reading Romans 8, but thought that chapters 4 and 5 might bring before us more the aspects of Christ’s work and what has been achieved. You see the greatness of it. Christ “has been raised for our justification”. It was not for His justification—He did not need to be justified, He was perfect. That is brought out in the glory of the Father raising Him from among the dead in His own distinctiveness. But think of Him being raised for our justification. So you get some sense that God looks at you in Christ, which is very wonderful.

JTB(Gr) Say something for the benefit of the younger ones about what justification is.

CKR God is prepared to justify those that are of the faith of Jesus. God is a just God. He has acted so beautifully in the manner of justification that He is able to look at you as though you had never sinned at all. But it is actually more than that. God looks at you in Christ. We were reading Romans 5 locally recently and a brother gave us a beautiful summary—justification makes you clear; reconciliation brings you near. In justification you are entirely clear of your history, therefore you can boast. You might say that the heavens are opening up because you are not in any way anxious about your own past history. Christ has been delivered for our offences, and raised for our justification.

ADM Does the woman in John 4 illustrate what you are saying? She says, “Come, see a man”, John 4: 29. She was really boasting in hope. She had had a terrible history, as we all have had but she was completely clear of it. She was able to go back to these men, with whom possibly she had consorted, to point them in another direction. She was really boasting in hope.

CKR She had left her water-pot and had found a new power, a new resource. She is able to boast, not in her own achievements, but in the thrill and joy and exultation of the hope of the glory of God. The glory of God links you with heaven. It does not focus your mind on the earth. As boasting in hope, the believer has his eyes towards heaven.

DAB That is what maintained Stephen. He saw the glory of God and Jesus standing there (Acts 7: 56). What a sight he saw! That maintained him in the terrible persecutions through which he passed.

CKR That point in the Acts is, as we have been taught, like a turning point, from Jerusalem being the centre to heaven being the centre. Then you see that Jesus is there. You can boast in hope of the glory of God because you see the One who bore your offences, the One in whom your justification is, is the One who is rightfully in the presence of God. What a wonderful thing that the believer, in the power of the Spirit, can enjoy access. Access is in mind here, “by whom we have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God”.

DAS Mr Darby’s note says, ‘have obtained and possess’. We had a touch this morning of peace as the Lord came in amongst us. In justification we have peace with God. It is a tremendous thing, and it is a reality.

CKR I think that peace is a very settled thing. We have to work through to this. We know from reading Mr Darby’s writings that he took some time to arrive at this. But when he arrived at it, it was a settled peace. It is that settled element that you want, because it provides a bulwark to the

soul and an increase in substance so that we are boasting in hope of the glory of God. This is substantial experience; we would love to have more of it.

JSp In Numbers, there were those who were encamped towards the sun rising. We are not taken from the earth, but we are settled as to our history and we are encamped looking towards the incoming of Christ.

CKR You have a settled future, as your future is before you. As you said earlier, past, present and future are here. Your past is dealt with. You are enjoying what is present by the Spirit. But the future is actually going to materialise into a wonderful matter for us all. Perhaps we could look at Thessalonians in that connection. It should never cease to amaze us that we shall be actually translated to heaven. We have been living our lives, gospel truths have come home to us through divine operations, and the Holy Spirit has been whetting our appetites and causing us to desire what is yet to come. It will come. The actuality of it will happen.

DAS The Lord says, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”, John 14: 3.

CKR That is right, to a prepared place, a place of glory “my Father’s house” is a place of glory. It is not according to men’s standards. You cannot see a photograph of it. We await the actuality of what will be a glorious eternal reality. The rapture is a wonderful thought. The Lord will catch away from this scene; ‘rapture’ means ‘caught away’. The dead in Christ will rise first, an evidence of divine power. No one will be missed from the dead in Christ, then we, the living, who remain, will be caught up. Were it to happen at this moment, the Spirit according to Romans 8 would operate to quicken our mortal bodies in view of translation in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye.

AMB What you speak of is the culmination of Christ’s work in redemption, is it not?

CKR It is the redemption of the body, the final act of redemption.

JAB I was thinking that the Lord Jesus is the First-fruits of this resurrection; but the resurrection of the saints and what we call the rapture, is the rest of the fruit being joined to Him. We will go to where He went when He was glorified. That is why it is glory. Glory is and must be where Christ is. If He is not there, it is not glory.

CKR Yes. “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?”, Luke 24: 26. He did that when He ascended and when He was taken into His glory. God has made Him as Man the centre of the whole universe, with His moral standards upheld and effectuated and secured. God is going to fill the scene, He is going to translate the saints and those who have been covered by redemption, both the dead in Christ and we the living, to that scene. We all need to get a real impression of this. It is not some sort of brethren’s tale, it is going to be a living and precious experience whereby we are taken to glory.

JSp Do you have any impression of the different ways in which the Lord is referred to in this section? He is referred to as ‘Jesus’, ‘the Lord’ and ‘Christ’. Do you have any thoughts about that?

CKR Jesus is always the personal side. It is very touching and precious for a believer to think of ‘those who have fallen asleep through Jesus’. The Lord’s love is made known in that way; Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus (John 11: 5). Then the “word of the Lord” brings in a touch of authority; and the power that attaches to that. “For the Lord himself’ brings in a touch of dignity in the Person. Then the “dead in Christ” is their status.

JSp It is very suggestive and there is a lot to think about in these things.

CKR There is a lot to think about in relation to the rapture, and as we reflect on it I think it would cause great stimulation in our hearts. It would lead us to say, ‘Oh that the rapture would happen!’ Weakness and frailty and corruption and all the other matters we read about in 1 Corinthians 15 as to the natural body would be ended—“It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15: 44). It will be raised in glory and in incorruptibility and in power.

TCM We should be ready for this every day. Mockers

say, “Where is the promise of his coming?”, 2 Peter 3: 4. But this is something that only the saints will know about. The world will know nothing about it until after it has happened.

CKR That is right. We should all understand that the rapture will be a private and secluded matter as the Lord comes for His own. One day we will not be here. One moment we will be gone. The mail will not be picked up from the letter box again, because the saints will be gone. It is a marvellous matter to think about, and it will happen on the basis of the work of Jesus. How wonderful to think that each one of us will respond to the coming of the Lord, “with archangel’s voice and with trump of God”. The Lord will come into the air and we shall go up. He will come to the air. He will come so far, and the saints will be raptured.

KM I was thinking that the graves will be opened, and in all the cemeteries all those that belong to Him will go up. The sea will give up its dead. It will be a wonderful time, a great time to think about and to contemplate with joy.

CKR A marvellous time. At the rapture we will be glorified, we will be taken to a sphere of glory never to return, never again to be in the natural conditions that we are in today. We will receive glorified bodies like His body of glory (Philippians 3: 21). He will usher us in—He spoke about going to prepare us a place so that He might receive us to Himself (John 14: 3). There is what the rapture is for us; but think what it will be for the Lord! It has been said that the rapture is not a rescue operation. There is a dignity and glory about it, as the Lord Jesus gets that word from the throne, that the time is come and the dispensation is complete—a dispensation involving the Holy Spirit here and the assembly being formed and secured. Then the Lord will come and the whole company will be taken to be with Him.

DAS It says “we, the living who remain”. It does mean of course those who remain alive, but I was thinking also that it would refer to those who boast in hope of the glory of God. They remain true to the end.

CKR Yes. It is “we, the living”. The contrast is between the dead and the living. It does not bring in age or gender or anything to do with our responsibilities, but it is what is living, as living souls. There will be a marvellous momentary point when the dead in Christ will be raised, and we, the living who remain shall be caught up together with them and taken in. The assembly will be there in totality. What power will be evident in all of this.

DAS There is something very personal about this—the dead in Christ shall rise first. The Lord knows every one and every one will be taken up. This touch as to being “caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” means there is a glory attached to those caught up to be with this glorious One. Not only are we going to be in glory, but there is glory attached to every one who will be caught up out of every situation and circumstance.

CKR There are going to be myriads secured, and when we see Him we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3: 2). That transformation will take place when we see Him as He is. We will see a glorified Man and when we see Him we shall be like Him.

DAS Children under the age of responsibility will be caught up too. That is a tremendous thing. You look at your neighbours’ children and you wonder.

CKR That is a great comfort; also any of diminished responsibility. You think of the Lord’s grace in all of that. So the Lord Jesus will have the pre-eminent place. And we will be with Him, “thus we shall be always with the Lord”. Being with Him means that we will be with Him in glory. The testimonial side, and the desire to be with Him in testimony, is a daily matter for us down here, but then to be with Him in glory, “thus we shall be always with the Lord”. Never to be parted; eternally with Christ is a blessed and glorious prospect.

RB According to Colossians, “When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory”, Colossians 3: 4. The saints shall be with Him at the point of His manifestation. Does this link with “the living who remain”? It says, “your life is hid with the Christ in God. When the Christ is manifested who is our life”, Colossians 3: 3, 4. Is there something going on in believers’ lives now that would fit us for that day, do you think?

CKR Yes, we are being fitted for that. That is the manifestation when we come out with Him. At the rapture, He comes for us and takes us in. At the appearing, He comes out and the saints come with Him when He is manifested. The millennium is also before us, which is a time of glorious administration. The saints of the assembly will then be in a glorified condition, and you will see then a heavenly administration the like of which has never been known on the earth. The saints now are being educated through their part now in the testimony to have their part in that.

DAB Again, the Spirit has a great part to play in this. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Revelation 22: 17. As well as the saints being raptured, the Spirit also leaves the earth because the saints go, will He not? Say something about the Spirit’s service as set out in Romans 8 in this connection—the Spirit quickening our mortal bodies, the Spirit’s action at the rapture.

CKR It is like the final touch of the Holy Spirit, “he that has raised up Christ from among the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies also on account of his Spirit which dwells in you”, Romans 8: 11. You get a touch really of the Spirit’s service in quickening, that will in a sense take you off the earth, as though your being is going to respond to the Lord’s touch, and the Spirit is operating in order to facilitate the completion of the whole operation of the rapture. It is not easy to explain.

DAB It will be a great spiritual throng that is taken up. As I understand it, believers who have not had the privilege of receiving the Spirit will be given the Spirit at that point. So that what is raptured is surely like that blessed One because of the operation of the Spirit. I would be glad of help.

CKR I have often wondered at that, and have heard of what you say. It will all happen in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. Yet the Holy Spirit will have a delight in the rapture, because He will have accomplished as a divine Person all that He came to do in forming what is being secured for Christ now in this dispensation and will be displayed then.

TCM The Lord is waiting for this time too. Do you think that is one reason why there is a sense of triumph here in the reference to the assembling shout, the archangel’s voice and the trump of God?

CKR Yes. The Lord is a man of patience, waiting now (see Hymn 274). Think of Him longing to have His assembly in actuality with Him, with a view to moving forward in all the prophetic and full matters of the purpose of God. So there are two divine Persons involved in this, but the rapture is to bring us into this eternal communion with the Lord Jesus.

JSp We are told that the Lord was received up in glory (1 Timothy 3: 16). Is this the answer to that?

CKR It is indeed. It is a glorious matter. And added to that we will be given glorified bodies, like His body of glory. Also, of course, we will be entirely separated from and never again affected by weakness, or sin, or by viruses, or anything of that nature that we are so accustomed to down here, or by failure in the public position. The whole dispensation will be finally and gloriously completed by the actual occasion of the rapture.

JSp The operations of the Spirit have been referred to. The formation of Christ in the saints is the Spirit’s work, and there will be something there of substantial character that can be clothed, looking forward to the final body of glory.

CKR Exactly. And the full answer to that will be the display of Christ in the assembly. We should refer to Hebrews. It speaks of bringing many sons to glory. That gives us some view, and we see that matters progress from that, “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”. We get some sense of the activities of the realm of glory in that the Sanctifier is sanctifying. We know that this is for holy purposes, for which souls are set apart. We see that He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one. Then “I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. So you begin to get some sense, as the service of God proceeds, of how we can enjoy this great truth of bringing many sons to glory.

JSp What is the force of the Lord being referred to as “the leader of their salvation” in this context?

CKR A leader is someone who sets a matter on and exemplifies everything. It is as though making perfect “the leader of their salvation” is used to describe the perfection of the Lord Jesus through sufferings.

JSp It is God’s way, through suffering. Peter touches that—suffering and glory. So we have to be prepared for that, we have to go through suffering. It is part of God’s ways.

CKR Yes, and it is all part of the formation of these features that we were speaking of earlier, features that will be clothed with what is glorious.

ADM Is it similar in its atmosphere to John 20, when the Lord says, “go to my brethren” and He refers to “my Father and your Father”? Is there something of that atmosphere here?

CKR Yes, and also beautiful unity—“he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. This is the One who has been made perfect as the Leader of their salvation. How great and glorious this Person is! He is now dignified and has those with Him whom He is not ashamed to call brethren—those secured as the objects of purpose.

ADM It is interesting that this comes into an epistle that was really written to stimulate and revive failing affections. The principle of revival is always needed, to refresh our spirits and refocus our eyesight as it were.

CKR Exactly—so that we can see that it is the glory that is before us, and to appreciate these glorious relationships “my brethren”; and to be part of “the assembly”. How we have moved forward from Romans 4, having been secured initially, onto the greatness and glory of touching divine purpose and the prime thoughts of God.

AMB It is a great aspect of the glory of the Lord Jesus that He is able to bring all of this about. We think of Him as the Firstborn from among the dead and as the First-fruits, and He is glorious in that way; but then added to these glories that are His uniquely, He has brought to light a tremendous number that are like Him morally. That is a glorious matter.

CKR Quite so; they were in divine purpose before they ever lived.

AMB The Lord Jesus is the only One who could make God’s heart known and secure its objects righteously. We have been speaking about glory, and it is a tremendous subject, very wide; but at its heart is it that Christ has demonstrated and displayed the love that is in God’s heart, and has secured its objects so that God might enjoy the company of the objects of His love for ever?

CKR It is a wonderful matter. And God will enjoy their company, not in an environment of degradation, but of glory—because that is what God is, He is the God of glory. Characteristically He is so. There is a link between what is spiritual and what is glorious. It is not material. It has to do with what is spiritual and abiding and lasting; but it is glorious.

AMB There is an element of what is moral in glory, is there not? But then it is with a view to the very presence of God being enjoyed and response flowing there eternally.

CKR Quite so. What is moral relates to the substantiality of what is secured.

MDB I was wondering about “he that sanctifies and those sanctified”. Would it be right to say that we will be raptured and go heaven and be occupied with the glory in that place and condition; but we can enjoy that now, we do not need to wait for it? Because there is what has been given to us now as those sanctified. That is a very liberating thing, is it not?

CKR It is one of the great blessings of the service of God. We can enjoy things individually, but then we can enjoy the glory together in our communion and conversation with one another. It is very good to elevate our conversations together. And the Holy Spirit is here as the power for the enjoyment of everything spiritual. How vital it is, then, that every one of us has a real sense of the value of the Holy Spirit of God and His service.

JSS “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”, 2 Corinthians 3: 18. Would that link?

CKR Yes it does, there is a single Object, because everyone is looking on the same glorious Person; and then it says, “even as by the Lord the Spirit”, the Spirit in the new covenant setting in 2 Corinthians 3. Sometimes it is difficult to tell when it is the Lord that is being referred to and when it is the Spirit. There is that beautiful harmony of divine Persons operating, and it is all in view that we are made like Christ—‘Like Jesus! Grace supreme!’ (Hymn 72).

JSp Would this lead on to “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen”, Ephesians 3: 21?

CKR I think it would. What you refer to is the culmination of this. It is an eternal matter. That is God’s end, in securing everything that was in His mind through this dispensation, that there might be “glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”. Then John gives us this touch in Revelation 21 as to the holy city and the tabernacle of God being with men. So we are touching what is eternal.

JTB(Gr) Is this so great that it requires a new heaven and a new earth to contain it? We enjoy these things here, by the Spirit; but for the full enjoyment of them it requires a wholly new order of things, patterned after Christ, does it not?

CKR Yes; it requires a new heavens and a new earth. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea exists no more”. There is no distance, everything is in nearness. God introduces that. “I saw a new heaven and a new earth”. Then He brings in the holy city—“I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. That links with what we have been saying as to the assembly. These are elevated thoughts. But we are not to feel that they are too much for us, because we have been enlightened as to the glory of them and we will be part of this glorious vessel described as the holy city.

Reading at Grangemouth
6 January 2008.

KEY TO INITIALS

A. M. Brown

K. Marshall

J. S. Speirs

D. A. Brown

A. D. Munro

D. Spinks

J. T. Brown (Gr.)

T. C. Munro

J. Spinks

J. A. Brown

C. K. Robinson

D. A. Steven

R. Brown

D. T. Speirs (Snr)