PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
[p. 32] PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Philippians 1:3-6; Philippians 1:23; Philippians 3:20, 21
I have read scriptures which I believe to be applicable to our dear sister, covering the past and the present and the future. Paul could thank God upon every remembrance of the Philippian saints, and could speak of what he had proved their fellowship to be, as he says, “from the first day until now”. Their spiritual course had been marked by great steadiness and it gave him great joy to think of it. I believe we can say humbly and simply that our dear sister’s course has been marked by this feature of steadiness.
I count it a personal favour from God to have been allowed to observe His work in our dear sister “from the first day until now”. It is sixty years ago that the light of love and glory came into her heart and she learned with deep interest that the precious Saviour who had died for her on the cross was now a glorified Man at the right hand of God. She carried the blessedness of that through her course. There is nothing more beautiful in nature than the sun rising, but to see the light of divine love and grace coming in to a human heart and filling it with joy is much more wonderful. The work of God “from the first day until now” has been clearly seen in our dear sister. Some profess to believe the gospel about whom we have misgivings as to whether there is any work of God at all. In such cases we cannot look with any assurance for the completion of the work, but with our sister there was never any uncertainty about it. The work of God was clearly marked and went on and deepened until the end. Her closing days were a comfort and stimulation to everyone permitted to witness the grace of God in her. They were the appropriate conclusion of a life in which the sunshine of divine favour had been known. All will come out in its completeness in the day of Jesus Christ. The apostle was assured in regard to his Philippian children that God would complete His work in them unto Jesus Christ’s day. Everything that has been wrought of God in the souls of His people will come out as [p. 33] completed in the day of Jesus Christ; there will be nothing there but what has been wrought of God.
Then in verse 23 Paul speaks of his desire to depart and be with Christ, which is very much better; that is the present place of our sister. She is with Christ, with the glorified Man who died for her and has been long known in her heart as the One in whom she is eternally accepted. She has the joy of this now as with Him. That which our sister enjoyed by the Spirit in the days of her flesh she is enjoying now without let or hindrance in the immediate presence of Christ.
Then as to the future, Paul speaks in chapter 3 of the crowning touch of all, when our bodies of humiliation will become transformed by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ into conformity with His body of glory. It is not simply what He was on earth or as raised from the dead, but what He is now as having a body of glory. The saints are to be conformed to Him as He is now, to the image of God’s Son glorified. What a climax to the ways and purposes of divine love! Each of the divine Persons is concerned in the bringing about of this wonderful result. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are concerned in bringing it about. The Father raises up the dead and quickens them, the Lord Jesus Christ transforms the body of humiliation into conformity to His body of glory, and the bodies of the saints will be quickened in the power of the Spirit. Either by resurrection or by transformation the great result will be secured. It comes near us at a moment like this and fills us with a sense of the triumph of divine love. May God help us to move in such a way that we may end our course in the same triumph as our dear sister! The nature of a believer’s course generally comes out at the end. We often find that the end is not bright because the course has not been consistent with the beginning. Our sister began and went through her course in a way that moves us to thank God for our remembrance of her.
A Word given at a Burial, 1941