The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Kingdom of God Is at Hand, #34

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23)

The glory the Father has given to Christ is extended to each member of the Body of Christ. The people of the world will behold this glory and will recognize that God loves the Church as He loves His firstborn Son.

Here we behold the distinction between the world and the Divine Seed, a distinction that will be carried forward throughout the day of image and union until it attains its most mature expression in the walled city, the eternal Tabernacle of God.

During the day of image and union, the Divine commission given to Adam and Eve will be developed among the members of Christ's Body. It will be on a scale so transcendent, so glorious, so unimaginably wonderful, so Divine and spiritual, that we only are beginning to gain glimpses of that glory as the radiance of the coming Kingdom dawns on the horizon.

Consider for a moment the four dimensions of the Divine commission given to Adam and Eve, the commission to be fulfilled on a transcendent level in the Wife of the Lamb during the thousand-year period:

Man will be in the image of God.

Man will be male and female, which is to say, no person will be complete in himself or herself. The members of the Body of Christ will be made perfect in one in Christ in the Father.

Man will be fruitful.

Man will rule the works of God's hands.

The four dimensions of the Divine declaration are the endowment of every born-again human being and are, of course, the endowment of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who is God and Man. Christ is the embodiment of total image, total union, total fruitfulness, and total dominion.

The four aspects of the Divine commission will be fulfilled spiritually in the Church during the day of image and union. The spiritual development of the Divine commission in the Wife of the Lamb is one of the prime purposes of the day of image and union, as we understand it.

After two days [two thousand years] will he revive us: in the third day [the thousand-year Kingdom Age, the third day of the Church-Kingdom Age] he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. (Hosea 6:2)

God's elect, His chosen, those who have been given to Christ by the Father, are being created and will continue to be created in the image of Christ. They are His younger brothers in that both He and they have the same Father. The act of the creation of Christ's image will continue until perfect image has been attained. God finishes what He begins.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be changed into the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29)

Each of God's elect has been predestined to be fashioned by the Spirit of God into the image of Christ in spirit, in soul, and in body. This is our destiny, according to the Word of God.

God is good, faithful, truthful, loving, gentle, generous, kind. We are bad, faithless, not truthful, quick to anger and hatred, harsh, selfish, and unkind.

God has decreed that we will be in His image. Therefore He brings us through exercises every day—exercises designed to make us good, faithful, truthful, and loving.

To be continued.