LUKE (Chapter 24)-The glory of the risen Christ (active) in the new man

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Part III

The life in the holy of holies of the marriage child of God.

We have come to the last chapter of the Gospel after Luke, and this chapter, according to the characteristics of the Tabernacle, we must view in the light of His Shekinah glory. It was the light of His divine glory (and the proof of His perfect presence), that at the time was present between the two cherubim on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. This light depicts the light of the love of God that, by Jesus' atonement, will work in the complete person – after body, soul and spirit – unto the full revelation of His justice in the sanctified person, and to the glory of His sweet and unsurpassed Name! Let us fervently desire the effect of this perfect light of God in our heart and life (Matthew 5:6), until we will be perfect in Him, as it is written: "...every one (disciple) that is perfect shall be as his master" (Luke 6:40b).

Should there be among you who think that fullness in Christ here on earth cannot exist, then you detract from the Word of God (Colossians 4:12; Matthew 5:48; John 17:23; 2 Corinthians 13:11), which tells us that He will build a church without any "spot or wrinkle" (Ephesians 5:27). Never in the history of the church this was realized, how wonderful members of the Church, especially in the beginning, might have been (see a.o. the book of Acts). But in the end-time, which we have already entered into now, the (perfect) Bride of Christ (namely the New Jerusalem) will be formed! By the powerful effects of the Word and the Spirit of God this Bride(church) will be led into the fullness of and in God. She will be brought to this (divine) perfection in order to be able to experience the divine miracle of the Marriage of the Lamb; namely the actual union of Jesus – the living Bridegroom, the Lamb of God – with His Bride living on earth, namely the then perfected Church (members) which is (are) called hereto (Revelation 19:6-10). And all that will take place on earth (Luke 12:36)!

But the Marriage of the Lamb is an event which is hidden from the world. Therefore the divine Bridegroom will not (be able to) be seen by the worldly person, but they will know who the Bride (namely the woman married to the Son of God) is, and this is because of the Shekinah glory of God, which will seen in and through her being and actions (Revelation 12:1; Psalm 45:14-16; Isaiah 60:2). And this glorious Bride(church), although in secret on account of the persecutions by the then present political world-church of the end-time (Revelation 17:1-9), the Latter-Rain-Revival (i.e. the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the end-time – see Joel 2:23-32; a revelation of Him as the revealing light of God), which will then go over all the world; will lead in the omnipotence of her heavenly Bridegroom; as is also written in Obadiah 21: "And saviors shall come up on mount Zion to judge (and to recover) the mount of Esau (= type for the carnal Christian); and the kingdom shall be the Lord's."

In this Bride(church) the Word of God, which we can find in Ephesians 3:18-19, will have been realized: "(that ye) may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." Then all the weak and imperfect, all that is man's own, will have been destroyed (brought to nought) by the victory of His resurrection power in our heart and life. Then God will (be able to) work in and through us, and we will be able to completely serve Him with a all-encompassing love and subjection! Then the wonderful waves of God's love and power will go through us to lead carnal man – who, in the end-time, will have been brought to the extreme form of unrighteousness by satan (Ezekiel 22:25, 29) – to faith and true repentance unto God, as a divine triumph; God's last triumph of the end-time!

God calls you and me now to go into His promise of this end-time; for He wants us to be part of His Bride(church) and the Marriage of the Lamb! Let us open our hearts for this and continue to walk in the "circumspection of the righteous" (Luke 1:17), so that God can work His way in our heart and life, and He will be able to fulfill His almighty works of grace in us unto the honor and glory of His divine Name! "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us (namely the way of the cross unto the killing of the "old me"), Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Spiritually seen, in this end-time we will enter an impressive time, even if it will entail a complete process of the cross (i.e. a complete dying to our old ego) as far as our "flesh" and our body is concerned; whereby we will experience increasing oppression and resistance. God's Church will have to be detached from all earthly-minded life; and it will have to grow unto the perfection of the heavenly-minded life (Haggai 2:7-10).

Let us look at this last chapter of the Luke Gospel in the light of what was written up before. It is good to put the following, for the sake of order: Now that – by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ – the sin offering for the sin of man was made, in heaven, thus with God, an ETERNAL redemption of sin and death is fulfilled (Hebrews 9:11-12). Now this victory over sin by Jesus Christ, our High Priest, must, here on earth, still be assigned to all, who have repented unto Him, have confessed their sins, and who have given themselves over to Him in faith (Hebrews 9:14-15). After all He alone, with the help of His anointed as His spiritual instruments, will build His Church by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 16:8; Psalm 127:1-2; 1 Corinthians 3:9-15).

CLICK HERE if you want to read this study (Chapter 24) – that is to long for the Blog.

By E. van den Worm