The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Judges of the Kingdom, #3

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; (Hebrews 5:8,9)

The Lord Jesus Christ was made perfect through suffering.

He is able to help us in the hour of temptation because He Himself was tempted.

Christ learned obedience by the things He suffered.

Christ was made perfect and thereby entered His predestined inheritance.

Notice carefully the following concept:

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21)

The Lord Jesus overcame and sits in the throne of the Father as a consequence of His overcoming.

We also, the predestined brothers of Jesus, must overcome. If we do, we will sit with Jesus in His throne.

We were chosen to rule, but first we must be transformed in personality and filled with Christ.

Paul was seeking to attain his predestined inheritance:

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ. (Philippians 3:12)

"If I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended"!

Paul had been chosen to be a ruler in the Kingdom of God, to be an integral part of the resurrection of Jesus. Now Paul was seeking to attain that for which he had been chosen.

As we stated previously, it appears as though the elements of pain and pressure necessary for the forming of rulers, teachers, and other officers of the Kingdom are not present in Paradise.

The wall of the new Jerusalem is of jasper. The twelve foundations of the wall are set with precious stones. The precious stones are the personalities of the victorious saints, the chosen rulers who have been formed under the heat and pressure of the tribulations of the world. They will serve forever to support the wall of resistance to rebellion that will surround the Throne of God and of the Lamb for eternity.

The rulers of the Kingdom must be perfected in the earth . It is here we learn patience. It is here the "pearl" in us is formed by the continual irritations of life. The pearl in us is a gate of the new Jerusalem, a gate through which people may enter and find God.

The "pearl," the gate, the entrance to the holy city, cannot be formed in Paradise because there are no irritations there. On earth we remain bound in ourselves, in our own interests, until the irritations of life in the material world form the pearl in us. Once the pearl has been formed in us we can serve as a door to God for other people.

To be a "gate" of the city is even more demanding than to be a "wall." It is one matter to have the hard, tough resistance to sin that the wall symbolizes formed in us. It is another matter to have, in addition to hardness against sin, the "humanity" in our personality that can serve to admit or deny people access to the Kingdom of God, to eternal life.

To be continued.