The Daily Word of Righteousness

Pursuing the Heavenly, #5

And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:9,10—NIV)

The only Christians who will be able to overcome the deceptions of Antichrist are those who are pursuing their position in Christ at the right hand of God.

God already has kings and priests who are waiting in the spirit realm until the Lord returns to earth. But there are many thrones yet to be filled. These will be taken by those who, in the closing days of the Church Age, keep on pursuing their new born-again life at the right hand of Power.

We see therefore that we are in days of awesome danger and awesome opportunity. Everything depends on whether we choose to live in the heavenlies with the Lord Jesus or whether we choose to follow the dictates of our flesh and carnal mind. The choice is clearly ours. The stakes are unbelievably high.

What Is Man?

The Book of Hebrews contains a mystery. The primary thesis of Hebrews is the exhortation to seasoned Christians to not drift away from Christ but to press forward to the rest of God. The secondary thesis of Hebrews is that the new covenant is superior to the old because it removes sin instead of just forgiving it. We see therefore that the secondary thesis is related to the primary thesis in that both are an exhortation to overcome sin, to not die in the wilderness of disobedience and unbelief.

Hebrews keeps exhorting us to press forward to perfection, to the rest of God, to the land of promise. But then it does not define clearly what the land of promise is.

The answer to this mystery concerning what perfection is, what the rest of God is, what the land of promise is, is found in the second chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

The first chapter of Hebrews tells of the exalted position of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second chapter informs us that to man has been assigned rulership over all the works of God's hands, that man has been made lower than the angels but yet shall be crowned with glory and honor. We see that the Lord Jesus (not to detract in any manner from His Divinity and Lordship) is representative man. We notice also that Christ, having been made perfect through suffering, is the Head of a company of sons—sons who are His brothers because they have the same Father as He.

This answer to the question "What Is Man?" seems to be unrelated to the main thesis of the Book of Hebrews. In actuality, the setting forth of man as the ruler of all the works of God's hands is the answer to the mystery of the identity of the rest of God, perfection, the land of promise. God has brought us to His right hand that we might be part of the Kingdom that will govern all the works of His hands.

To be continued.