The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Age of Reconciliation, #6

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (I John 2:2)

The blood of the cross reconciled the whole world to God in terms of forgiveness and also cleansed the holy places in the heavens.

It was therefore necessary the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (Hebrews 9:23)

The wrath of God has been appeased (propitiated). However, the presence of sin remains in the heavens and on the earth. The Lord Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, waiting until His enemies are made His footstool by the wisdom and power of the Father.

It is this author's opinion that we now are entering the Age of Reconciliation, an age that will last throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age (Millennium). We believe reconciliation to God is the purpose for the Kingdom Age.

Bringing Sin to Maturity

The wheat and the tares. Why has God waited for two thousand years before bringing us to the Age of Reconciliation, the Day of Vengeance? One reason is that the Body of Christ has not come to maturity; Christ has not been formed in the saints. Another reason is that sin has not as yet come to maturity.

Notice that God made a covenant with Abraham concerning the land of promise. But Israel was not allowed to enter and slay the inhabitants until the "iniquity of the Amorites" had come to maturity.

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (Genesis 15:16)

We see the same principle in the parable of the wheat and the tares. God will wait until both Satan and Christ have attained maturity in the earth. Then the angels of God will remove from the Kingdom of God all wickedness and wicked people.

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 13:41-43)

The giving of authority and power to Satan. Now we come to some passages of the Scriptures that are very difficult to understand—those that describe the authority and power that God gives to Satan, to Antichrist, and the False Prophet.

Let us keep in mind that God always is in control. The war between God and Satan is not a war of power but of truth. God has all power. Satan cannot overcome God's power or Christ's resurrection nor does he attempt to do so. Satan is terrified of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Satan works in the realm of deception. He is a false day star. He continually bears witness of his own plan for joy and peace. Meanwhile the Lord Jesus bears witness of God's plan for joy and peace. Human beings (and possibly angels) must decide who is telling the truth.

To be continued.