The worldly costume I wore did not satisfy, and no amount of aping around inside it would do, and besides from behind the mask I could not see my way with clarity; for the suit I wore was cumbersome and confining. I needed to shed these old clothes to release the new man inside. After suffering much anguish I learned that my freedom would be reveled by a mystery, which required an answer for release from the costume in which I was captured. Solving this mystery required my taking a bold step and thereby donning a new uniform clothed in faith.
I am very grateful to Mr William Newell for his inspiration on this subject, he is a most valuable assistant to have on this Sherlock mission I have been on, and I hope you will use his magnifying glass of Romans Verse by verse to give you glues along the way also, it was a great help to me, on the trail of the truth, where there was a revelation, of a mystery. First I discovered that The Father had a sovereign purpose in the sharing of something never before reveled, and that was His own Glory and wisdom in fullness. Think of this, all the heavenly creation had never known The Father's hidden plan which he chose to accomplish by His Son, in the Church Body and then to unveil this mystery in Love to His Children. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God" Eph. 3:10. In other words His mystery would be show to all creation by His accomplishment in us, the Body of Christ. And "now to Him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel [that is Paul's special revelation to us], and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began" Rom. 16:25. There is a good hint in this verse, we are established according to the revelation of the mystery. Lets get out our pipe and lens put on our Sherlock hat and find more glues.
It was the Fathers Mercy in Love which prompted this newly manifested part of His being. "But God rich in His mercy, because of His Great Love with which He loves us" Eph. 2:5. Mercy here must first be considered. If we need mercy it is because we were in a most pitiful situation.Yes God Loved us, He showed that in selecting us for salvation, but we needed mercy first. In the fall we became dead in our offense's and sins, and this is our body and nature by the first Adam's representation, our inheritance, and we all still have in our human nature, that Adam personality. Hence the need for continued mercy, just as His Love is on going; shown by God in taking us from a wretched condition and placing us in a new position acceptable to Him which He eternally holds us in, in His Resurrected Son. But it is the full realization of that Divine position that will make the on going Mercy and Love experiential for us and the mystery reveled.
I have always felt that John 17 was perhaps the most significant chapter of the bible in opening the door of the mystery, as it is a prayer of Jesus to His Father for us, and therefore will be answered! As I read it the veil begins to be lifted on my inheritance found in The second Adam, as a Christian. I learned four things of great importance. [1] We are to be kept in the Fathers name from the evil one. [2] We are to be sanctified as not of the world, by truth and by identification with Christ " for their sakes I sanctify myself". It was His death on the cross unto our human flesh nature, and unto our sin. [3]That we may be one, a union which embodies the mystery, as He prayed " father, you in me and I in You, that they may be one in us". [4]That we may be with Him forever, where he is, a eternal position, which starts in this body in this place we live now. His prayer was for the Apostles, as well as us, and they of course were on the earth. He then said "the glory which you have given Me I have given them".This my friends is the foundation of the reveled mystery. That we Christians have entered into a glory, a identification, a position in the very God of creation never before shown to any of His heavenly host! I hope you will soon go to the Word and slowly read His prayer and then contemplate the place you hold in heaven by its answer, by the Father, in us the body of Christ.
The answer to the mystery is based on solid facts with a chain of evidence stretching from the beginning to the end of the bible! Therefore as a good detective I followed the trail, which led to the eventual solving of the mystery. I learned that we the Church are a heavenly people, a company who to the awe of the heavenly creation would enter into glory and be glorified by a glorious Man we are seated there in spirit with Him. We are so identified with His Son in that glorious place that we are considered and loved and accepted just like Him by The Father. By that God showed that we were foreordained to be "conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the First-born among many brethren". The many brethren is the church, us Christians, and if He was the first to be born and we are His brethren then we must be like Him, in the view of the Father. What a blessing to realize! Also I found we have been made alive in Him, for we were once dead in our sin. We sit together with Him in heaven in spirit by faith-thus passing out of our earthly connection, and becoming citizens of heaven. The very riches of the glory of Christ dwells in our hearts [read soul/personalty] by the Holy Spirit in our minds! And that we function as a reflection in a mirror, in which we behold the glory of The Lord and are thus transformed into His image here and now on the planet we dwell, set aside, body, soul and spirit for that purpose! All this could not be accomplished by works or feelings but by faith in the scriptural reality and fact.
Well my fellow sleuths; we have gathered the evidence, we have shown our case to be solid, now we must present it to be judged. This requires a boldness, the world, the jury panel, they are watching us closely and it is our faith which will prove to them we stand on solid ground. How then do we prepare to face their probing gaze?
The facts are all gathered, and the truth can only lead to one conclusion. We the Church are bound up in The Man in Heaven Jesus Christ, where God has placed us spiritually. This is God's sovereign desire, that we be placed into the Body of Christ or as repeated over 150 times in the Word, in Christ. This is a supernatural uniting of the believer with the glorified Christ and His Body. We are wholly identified with the Lord Jesus. When your whole understanding of who you are as a Christian revolves around this fact it will be life-transforming, as the Word says; "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" Phil,3:12. And as Stoney says: "To know our position in the Lord Jesus is necessary so that we may understand His ways and rest in His means". First we believe and are justified, a most wonderful thing. Then we must make His acquaintance. We must see Him in Heaven and know of our association with Him there. Then we can see the mystery of being joined with His Body, and by that rejoice in the knowledge of Himself. Eternal life is received by the result of the Cross, a victorious incorruptible, indestructible life. But the believer has to come by faith to prove it, to live by it, to learn its principals and then be conformed to the position where he has been placed by the Father. The course of our spiritual experience is to grow in all that is represented by The Lord in the identification and position we hold. Stoney said it like this: "Truth is received in the mind,[spirit] assimilated in the heart,[soul/personality] and manifested in the walk". So my friends lets go forward with boldness, the mystery is solved and our faith will insure victory before the judge and jury.
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