Brighter and Brighter Till the Full Day
➤“But the path of the just is like the shining sun,
That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day” (Pro. 4:18).
God’s work with humanity is progressive.
He progressively reveals both Himself and His redemptive plan, too. His Person is infinitely great, and our learning about Him will never end – unlike His plan of redemption, which we will realize to the full when we see Jesus.
“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3:2).
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Phil. 2:20-21).
On the route to full redemption, we recognize that He has brought His people to many plateaus along the way, where we have tasted moments of that promise. For example, in the Old Covenant, we read about physical manifestations of glory; and throughout the New Covenant Church Age, we’ve seen spiritual manifestations through Holy Spirit revivals.
These plateaus are dimensions of His promise for various seasons, not the full breadth that we shall realize in the end.
Old Covenant Plateaus Touching His Promise
God’s chosen people, as seen throughout the Old Testament, experienced several periods that fulfilled His promise. A couple of examples of that would be when God’s promise to Abraham was fulfilled by Israel on two particular occasions.
First, inside the Promised Land under Joshua:
“So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. The LORD gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass” (Joshua 21:43-45).
Second, in Jerusalem under King Solomon, some 900 to 1000 years after Abraham:
“Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. So Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.”
“For he had dominion over all the region on this side of the River from Tiphsah even to Gaza, namely over all the kings on this side of the River; and he had peace on every side all around him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, each man under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon” (I Kings 4:20-21; 24-25).
This pattern of God bringing His Old Covenant people to various degrees of fulfillment of His complete promise is certainly evidence worthy of consideration that He will do the same for His New Covenant people, too. I mentioned that we’ve had semblances of the same through Holy Spirit revivals. The types and shadows of God’s New Covenant people seen in His Old Covenant people are many: promises, trials, temptations, opposition, deliverance, liberty, etc., and glory too!
And there is one more to come!
The Holy Spirit, through Paul, tells us that we will see a moment of glory just before Jesus comes – a moment of spiritual glory greater than the Pentecostal glory when almost all were still spiritual babes. The coming moment of glory will be the result of spiritual maturity – “the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13:b)!
This will be a kind of “glorious” state at the very end of the Church Age, just before we are called up to meet Him in the air and “glorified” (Eph. 5:27; 4:13).
He depicts this future glory as a bride appropriately dressed and ready for her Groom – already washed from her sins by His blood, but having progressed in practical sanctification in preparation for meeting Him.
The New Testament constantly urges the bride to prepare for His arrival, stating that preparation comes by grace given to her from her Groom; she only needs to accept and cooperate under that grace.
One More Plateau Remains
This glorious church moment will result from several gifts God has given, including Spirit-gifted leadership, the Holy Spirit Himself, and His written Word.
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-13).
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Cor. 3:18).
“That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:26 27).
Our spiritual battle is real and relentless, and the closer we draw near to the return of our Lord, the worse it becomes. Right now, Apostate Christianity is on full display, but God is working beneath the surface in His remnant both inside and outside the established Church.Jesus is preparing His Bride!
Watching His plan unfold,
Mark S. Case
