In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
— 1 Corinthians 15:52
Plainly our Creator-God and Redeemer still has many kingdom secrets not yet revealed to us. But we do know that in that glad day of Christ?s coming, there will be great transformations, all taking place with split-second speed. Concerning those great changes, Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians: "The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:52–53). Paul used the familiar analogy of plant life to describe to the Corinthians the reality of the promised resurrection:
What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined. . . . So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body . . . Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. . . . When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory' (1 Corinthians 15:36–38, 42–44, 49, 54).
Surely it was this same revelation by the Spirit of God that caused the writer Jude to exclaim: To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy ? to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen (Jude 24–25). We rest upon God's revelation that in the heavenly world today, Jesus in His glorified body represents us at the throne of God. Each of us who loves and serves Him has a right to the great scriptural promises. In that great climactic event of the ages, our Lord will come and we shall all be changed. He will present us before the eternal throne with exceeding joy, glorified even as He is glorified!
thought
We shall be changed! The perishable raised imperishable; the mortal becoming immortal; weakness giving way to power; the natural to the spiritual. When Christ comes, we shall be changed!
prayer
At Your coming, Lord I will be changed. You have been changing me over the years and continue to do so but the most gigantic change is still ahead.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
— 1 Thessalonians 4:17
At death, only the physical body succumbs. For the believers in Christ, their undying and immortal spirits have passed into a blessed spiritual abode prepared by our God. Let us be assured that God is ever faithful in His gracious plan for His creation and for His redeemed children. We surely know that all things are not going to continue forever as we now know them. Paul in the first century wrote advice and encouragement to the Thessalonian believers. He told them plainly that he did not want them to be unaware of the state of those believers whom he described as "asleep" ? having passed into the presence of the Lord through physical death. His message was one of distinct consolation. It continues to shine as a word of hope for every believer:
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord?s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18).
thought
Whether alive at His coming or of those who have fallen asleep, we shall meet the Lord in the air and shall be with Him forever. To be with the Lord forever is what makes heaven heaven!
prayer
You are with me now, Lord, and someday I will be with You in heaven forever.
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
— Second Corinthians 5:8
Jesus, the Man who is also God, was raised as a victor from the dead and exalted to the right hand of the Father. I think it is safe to say that during this age of the work and witness of the Christian church on earth, Jesus would be the one visible Man in that heavenly company at the throne. Of course, there are questions that students of the Bible have discussed for many years. All of us do well to confess that much about the glorious kingdom of God is yet unknown to us and cannot now be comprehended. For instance, what about the righteous dead and their place in the heavenlies?
We might state our question like this: If the risen and glorified Jesus is ministering there, what about the great number of Christian men and women who, having died in the faith, have gone on to meet the Lord? Where are they? First of all, and beyond any other consideration, we know that they are safely sheltered in God?s heavenly realm. The apostle Paul declares that it is "better by far" for the Christian to "depart and be with Christ" (Philippians 1:23) than to continue in this world of sin and tears.
thought
There is little biblical revelation concerning the believer's intermediate state, that is, between physical death and resurrection. Away from the body, we shall be at home with the Lord. To be at home with Him is enough to live and die for.
prayer
Thank You, Lord, in Your timing I will be "going home" to be forever with You!
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men . . .
— 1 Timothy 2:5-6a
Jesus our Lord qualified completely to be our great High Priest. He was ordained and appointed by God. He was the eternal Son of whom the Father said, ?You are a priest forever? (Psalm 110:4). He made reconciliation for the people. He showed the only genuine compassion for lost mankind. The Scriptures affirm that in these qualifications as priest, Jesus our Lord became the Author, the Source, the Giver of eternal salvation. Let me review again what it means to us that Jesus was born into this world and lived among us. I once heard a preacher say that Jesus was man but not a man. I am convinced that Jesus was both man and a man.
He had, in the most real sense, that substance and quality that is the essence of mankind. He was a man born of a woman. Unless we understand this, I do not think we can be fully aware of what it means for Jesus to be representing us ? a Man representing us at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. Suppose you and I were able right now to go to the presence of the Father. If we could see the Spirit, who is God, and the archangels and seraphim and strange creations out of the fire, we would see them surrounding the throne. But to our delight and amazement, we would see a Man there, human like we are ? the Man Christ Jesus Himself!
thought
Christ as the God-Man can fully represent us to God and God to us. He is the perfect mediator, our great High Priest. That is why we pray in His name.
prayer
You show me the Father in all that You are and You represent me to the Father. You are my great High Priest!
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'
— John 1:29
That ancient priestly system was not perfect. It was only the shadow of a perfect, eternal priesthood to be brought about by the Savior-Priest, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son. Every priest in the order of Levi knew only too well his own sin. This was the point of the breakdown. When that priest stood before God in the holiest place to present an atonement for the sins of the people, he was face-to-face as well with the reality of his own failures and shortcomings. In our own day, we recognize what this means to us as liberated and forgiven believers. Singing the hymnody of Isaac Watts, we revel in Christ's atonement and God's forgiveness:
Not all the blood of beasts On Jewish altars slain, Could give the guilty conscience peace, Or wash away the stain. But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, Takes all our sins away A sacrifice of nobler name, And richer blood than they. The Old Testament priest knew that the ritual of sacrifice could not completely atone for sins or change man?s sinful nature. In that priestly system, God "covered" the sin until the time when Christ would come. Christ, the Lamb of God, would completely bear away the sin of the world.
thought
All sacrifices in the Levitical system pointed ahead to the eternal sacrifice of God, the Lamb of God. Observance of the Lord's Supper points back to that sacrifice. The sins of you and me and all the world are heaped upon Him who takes all our sins away.
prayer
You are the sacrificial Lamb, O Christ, and You are my shepherd day by day. Hallelujah!
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God
— Hebrews 10:11-12
Alienation was not God?s fault. It was man who alienated himself. Man is away from God, like a little island that has pulled away from the mainland. Drifting out to sea, it has lost the attraction of its original position. So man has morally pulled away from God and from the attraction of God?s fellowship. Man is alienated, without hope and without God in this world. The important element in God?s concept of the priesthood is mediatorship.
The Old Testament priest provided a means of reconciliation between God and man. But he had to be ordained of God. Otherwise, he was a false priest. In order to help man, he had to be appointed by God. God, for His part, needs no help. There never was an Old Testament priest who could help God. The work of the priest was to offer a sacrifice, an atonement, so that alienated man could be forgiven and cleansed. In the Levitical order, an offering had to be made to God by the priest on behalf of the sinner. The priest was appointed to plead the case of man before a righteous God.
thought
Christ as our priest has offered an eternal sacrifice for our sins. But He is also the sacrifice. He gave Himself!
prayer
Thank You, Lord. You have sacrificed Yourself for my sin and are now seated at the Father's right hand. The sacrifice is finished! You are my great High Priest!
Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
— John 14:6
God's concept and instructions are very plain. There has been a moral breach. Sinning man has violated the laws of God. In other words, man is a moral criminal before the bar of God. It is clear from the Bible that a sinful man or woman cannot return to God?s favor and fellowship until justice is satisfied, until the breach is healed. In an effort to heal the breach, man has used many subtleties and rationalizations. But if he rejects the cross of Christ, if he rejects God?s plan of salvation, if he rejects Christ?s death and resurrection as the basis for atonement, there is no remaining ground for redemption. Reconciliation is an impossibility. It is a part of my calling and responsibility in the ministry to warn men and women that rejection of the atoning work of Jesus Christ is fatal to the soul. With such rejection, the efforts of the Savior and His intercession as great High Priest have no meaning.
thought
Christ is the way, the only way to the Father. Only Christ has made atonement for our sin and as the risen one only He represents us at the Father's right hand. Our religious tolerance can never change the fact that Christ is the
prayer
O Christ, may I lovingly and respectfully present You to people around me as the only way.
As you come to him, the living Stone ? rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him ? you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
— 1 Peter 2:4-5
Consider with me some of the things we know about the priesthood for which God anointed our Lord Jesus. Not only was He the eternal Son, but He was also the glorified Man. Why should we ignore the reality of such a priesthood and treat it as if it was some appendage to religious forms and traditions? The true idea of the priesthood, as it was developed in the Old Testament and fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ, was ordained by God. It came from His mind and heart. It was dimly foreshadowed in the lives of praying fathers, heads of their households, who assumed responsibility and concern for their families. Job was a good example of this kind of Old Testament family priest. Afraid his children might have sinned, he prayed to God, asking Him to forgive and cleanse them.
But the concept is much more clearly embodied in the Levitical priesthood, ordained by God for Israel?s forgiveness and cleansing. In its final perfection, the priesthood is portrayed in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We must acknowledge that God?s concept of the priesthood arose from man?s alienation from God. It is based on the fact that man has strayed from God and is lost. This is a fundamental part of truth, just as surely as hydrogen is a part of water. You can not have water without hydrogen. Just as surely, you cannot have Bible truth without the teaching that mankind has broken with God and fallen from his first created estate, where he was made in God?s image.
thought
As believers we are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices. Little do we think of ourselves as priests. Among our priestly functions are the offering of spiritual sacrifices, intercession on behalf of others and representing God to those outside Christ.
prayer
You have redeemed me, Lord, and made me a priest. I want to offer spiritual sacrifices to You and make You known to those outside the kingdom.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men ? the testimony given in its proper time.
— 1 Timothy 2:5-6
I think I know what ?contemporary dialogue? means. It means that all of those intellectual preachers are busy reading the news magazines so they will be able to comment on the world situation from their pulpits on Sunday mornings. But that is not what God called me to do. He called me to preach the glories of Christ. He commissioned me to tell my people there is a kingdom of God and a throne in the heavens. And that we have One of our own representing us there. That is what the early church was excited about. And I think our Lord may have reason to ask why we are no longer very excited about it.
The Christian church in the first century was ablaze with this concept of the risen and victorious Christ exalted at the right hand of the Father. Although it worshipped no other man, it urged the worship of this glorified and exalted Man as God, because He had always been the eternal Son, the second Person of the Godhead. Paul wrote to Timothy: There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men ? the testimony given in its proper time (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
thought
Jesus Christ qualifies as our Mediator with God because Christ gave Himself as a ransom for us all. Are we utilizing the divine services of our Mediator? A major means is by prayer.
prayer
Lord, make me a proclaimer, a "pray-er." Only then will my "dialoguing" be effective. You are my Mediator.