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Letters of Truth - Spirit of the Word - Covenant Eschatology - Introductory Note - New Stuff
Redemption . . . All in AllTIME- BY DIVINE DEGREES
Chapter 4"By faith we understand the ages to have been prepared by a saying of God." [Hebrews 11:3, Young's Literal Trans.].
BY FAITH we understand. True faith always pre-supposes a divine revelation has been received to become the foundation upon which a belief or action is founded. We read that "by faith Abraham went out, not knowing whither he went." The record is based upon the history of his actions and how he obeyed God. But if you go back into the Genesis account, you read, "The Lord SAID unto Abram, Get out of your country." [Gen. 12:1]. Abraham went out, by faith, yes, but it was obedient action based upon a divine revelation, "GOD SAID!" If God had not spoken to him, he would not have had direction to go any place, he would not even have known he was suppose to have gone.
When we read, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for," [Heb. 11:1], we find that the word "substance" comes from the Greek word meaning "substratum," or that undergirding solid rock. Faith has an undergirding, it is divine revelation, and without that ROCK of His illuminated Word, we have nothing to base our beliefs, or our actions upon.
So the writer says, with the divine revelation of God undergirding our understanding, we understand that the "worlds were framed by the word of God." (King James Trans.). This word "world" meaning AGES, and the word "framed" meaning TO MAKE THOROUGHLY FIT, to be adequate, adjusted, fully equipped. By faith we understand that time has been made thoroughly fit, adequately equipped, fully planned and prepared by God to work out a purpose. TIME IS A SERVANT TO THE PURPOSE OF GOD!
Furthermore it is essential that we understand that God does have a purpose which is being wrought out through time. This is not just a helter-skelter succession of unrelated events, piling up in confusion on each other. God has a beautifully synchronized purpose which He is executing right on schedule, with every age fitted for its own part in that purpose. "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." [Acts 15:18], for He is both the " Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last." [Revelation 1:11]. And we would add for emphasis, HE IS ALL OF THE DISTANCE IN BETWEEN! He is greater than time, for He is the Author of time, and in perfect control of its progress and process.
God has "a purpose of the ages, which He made in Christ Jesus our Lord." [Eph. 3:11, Young's]. It contains the whole, outworking and interplay of good and evil. It's end is secure in His triumphant victory, and it shall redound to His praise. But for now, we would turn our thoughts more to our own participation in this purpose, and know that our life has been ordered of God with a distinct purpose in view, and HE has fitted all of the "times" for our life. As it says of David, "Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel....with all his reign and his might, AND THE TIMES THAT WENT OVER HIM..." [1 Chronicles 29:29, 20]. Thank God, every fragment of "the times that go over us" are in His sovereign control. The length of each testing, and the glory of each blessing, and all beautifully entwined to fulfill His plan for us, and bring us into our destined place in Him.
Now it is certain that flesh cannot bring itself into the timetables of God, nor can we bring God down to our time schedules. "Lord, do this right now," we pray, and if this is in harmony with His plan, it does come to pass immediately, but if God's plan is otherwise, we learn to wait and in patience possess our souls, saying, "Your will be done." God can bring us to His time, and sustain us in all the intervals when the vision seems to tarry. And we repeat, while God's purpose is being wrought out through time, it is not subject to time, but time has been fitted for its outworking, for time is a servant to God's purpose.
GOD'S PURPOSE ANTEDATES TIME, for He purposed it in Himself before time began, and then arranged for the times in which He will fulfill it. Therefore His purpose is not in bondage to any man's time, be it a day, or a thousand years, but all time has to serve that purpose. Furthermore, God's grace, whereby this purpose shall be accomplished, also antedates time, for we read, "Before time began He planned to give us in Christ the grace to achieve this purpose..." [2 Timothy 1:9, Phillips].
The sufficiency of grace was freely given before time began, hence God's grace is not bound to time either. Grace can take all the time it desires for its manifestation, for it is not subject to the confines and limitations of time. The religious traditions of some speak of an age of grace, as if all other ages would be devoid of grace. This is utter nonsense. You cannot possibly limit the grace of God to any one age, for it is manifest in all ages, and is not bound to any certain age alone.
Since man is saved by grace, not of self-works, and grace is a gift of a sovereign God, then obviously He can administer that grace to man whenever He chooses. The length of time has no claims upon that grace, it is but a servant to His grace, to reveal by degrees the wonder and glory of God's bountiful grace and mercy. Should God so arrange that this be the hour when He gives grace in your life, then bow low before Him in worship and praise. Yet if you have loved ones who have not yet been given this inflow of grace, do not despair, "In Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order." [1 Cor. 15:22-23], and God has fitted the ages so that there is an appointed time for grace to work in every life. We do not know HIS times and seasons, therefore we warn every man to turn to God now, knowing that we reap what we sow, and to continue sowing to the flesh means more harvests of suffering and sorrow. And we thank God for each heart that is opened to receive of God's grace now. But, for those who seemingly are hardened and resisting His love today, grace has not lost, there is an acceptable time when grace shall reach every hardened soul. In fact, I dare say grace is already at work through the disciplines and trials and fires of purification, preparing that one for the day when they shall bow and worship Him as Lord and Saviour.
With a purpose that antedates time, and grace also given before time for its accomplishment, next we find that there is a wisdom that also antedates time. "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world (ages) unto our glory." [1 Corinthians 2:7]. The Amplified gives, "That wisdom which God devised and decreed before the ages for our glorification (that is, to lift us into the glory of His presence)."
This divinely imparted wisdom is not a product of time, gained through the unfolding of time's experience, but is that divine wisdom which antedates time, and when received enables us to use time in relationship to the purpose. Wisdom is the KNOW-HOW which is joined to the ability, GRACE, to accomplish the PURPOSE. And how marvelous that God can impart a word of wisdom in an instant, that goes far beyond our "years," and the times of our experience, and the knowledge gained through experience.
You say you would like to receive some of this wisdom? "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord." [James 1:5-7].
And Paul writes that in Christ are "all the treasures of divine wisdom, of comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God, and all the riches of spiritual knowledge and enlightenment stored up and lie hidden."
[Colossians 2:3, Amplified].
So, to ask in faith, and to recognize that this wisdom is in Christ and that He abides within us by His Spirit, and is able to impart that wisdom according to the need, as we live and walk in harmony with the Spirit. And the more we come into this union with Christ, the greater the flow of His life through us, in all its manifestations. And "He is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." [1 Cor. 1:30].
A purpose--grace for its out working--wisdom to direct it, and then we find that God has also promised LIFE which also antedates time, and which can endure all the ages, and still remain in full strength at the end of time. "In hope of eternal (Greek, aionian, AGE--ABIDING) life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world (before the ages) began; but has in due time manifested..."
[Titus 1:2-3].
Aionian-life, or age-abiding life is life that abides throughout all time, for it is not subject to time, being that life of God which actually antedates time. The ringing declaration that God shall be "all in all" makes it self-evident that the end is secure. [1 Cor. 15:28]. What the real need is, is LIFE WHICH CAN ABIDE THE PASSING OF TIME, so that we do not miss out on any of the processes of the coming ages. This is that divine life which God promised before time began, and which is now made manifest through our Lord Jesus Christ, "Who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality
(Greek, incorruption) to light through the gospel."
[2 Timothy 1:10].
There is no need to worry about "eternity" which is secure in the hand of God, the question is, do we have life which can last as long as time lasts? There is a life that goes beyond this "bios," physical life of the flesh. There is a life which goes beyond "psuche," Greek word for soulish life. The Greek word used for divine, age-abiding life is "zoe," and this life antedated time, abides all through time, and will abound after the ages have run their course and the whole returned back into God, to find its consummation in Him. It is of this life which John spoke, when he said, "He that has the Son has life." [1 John 5:12]. Jesus Christ IS our life, and abiding within our hearts by faith, and by His Spirit, we are passing from the realms of death into the fulness of His life. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." [John 10:10].
To speak of that which is before time, makes it self-evident that time has a beginning. Time's beginnings no doubt are concurrent with Genesis 1:1, "In the beginnings." The Hebrew word here is in the plural form. It has its counterpart in Hebrews 1:10, "And, You, Lord, in the beginnings (here the Greek word also is plural) have laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Your hands." While this was the beginnings of many things--sin's entrance into the universe, and many other projections of God's purpose, time certainly figures in this beginning. BUT, we repeat, there are those things which were BEFORE TIME, which have a more eternal quality, they abide through the passing of time, and shall emerge in victory after time shall be no more.
It is also apparent that there are many ages yet to come, for Paul writes "that in the ages (plural) to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness towards us through Christ Jesus." [Eph. 2:7].
That time also has an ending is also revealed, for we read the statement, "neither in this world (age), neither in the world (age) to come." [Matthew 12:32]. Again, "The harvest is the end of the world (age)." [Matthew 13:39]. And, "Upon whom the ends of the ages have come." [1 Cor. 10:11]. Now, if the ages are plural, then one has to end for the next one to begin. But if one age is equal to eternity, then the plural is an impossibility. Yet we hear a most senseless phrase, "the endless ages of eternity." If one age is endless, there is no plurality, and if there is an end to an age, then it is not eternal.
Our common law of opposites can offer us a good point for consideration about time and eternity. We need no proof that when we say "down" that there is an "up." We need no proof that there is an "out" when we say "in." So also, to say "TIME" definitely implies that it has an opposite which is "ETERNITY." Eternity signifies a condition or a state wherein time does not even exist any more than "up" exists in "down."
Much confusion concerning God's plan of the ages is eliminated when we understand that the words given in our King James Version, forever, eternal, everlasting, all spring from the root Greek word "aion" meaning age. When we read, "But now once in the end of the world (age) has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" [Hebrews 9:26], we know that this was not the end of the world, for it has continued two thousand years since Calvary. But we do recognize that it was an end to a certain age, a time period which entailed a certain form of God's dealings with man, and then a transition into a new age, in which He dealt with man in a new order. Thus we pass from age to age, each successive age fulfilling God's purpose, for which it was framed, fitted, and then passing away, while a new one begins.
God alone is the ETERNAL CENTER from which all time proceeds, and into Whom all things return to find their consummation. "For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy." [Isaiah 57:15]. There is no such thing as time succession with God, as He can deal with our past or future as equally as with our present, for all is alike unto Him. He is the ETERNAL I AM. We say, He was, He is, and He will be, but actually HE IS alone expresses Him. For us there has to be a past and a future, a point of beginning and an ending, for we are under the workings of time. But HE who is greater than all time, is not subject to its bondage, nor limited to its operations.
Augustine said, "Past and future I find in all the motion of things. In the truth which abides I find not past and future, but only the present. And this without fear or possibility of change. Take God and you will find the I AM. To mount beyond time, who shall do this in his own strength? But let Him lift us up, Who said to the Father, I will that where I AM that there they may be also." End of quote.
Now, the more we yield to the in workings of the Spirit of God, the more we shall come into harmony with His purpose being wrought throughout the ages. The more we shall receive of His grace for its accomplishment in our life. The more we shall receive of His wisdom to know the way. And the more we shall receive of His LIFE to abide the processing.
While the Scriptures speak of many different ages, it also points to that climactic age of all ages. We read the phrase "Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever." [Hebrews 1:8]. These words "for ever and ever" come from the Greek which literally means TO THE AGE OF THE AGES. This is very familiar terminology in the Scripture. In the Tabernacle structure of the Old Testament, we read of the court, of the sanctuary, and then of the holiest of all, or the holy of holies. It was the most holy place, where the presence of God dwelt, and into which place the high priest went but once a year, and then always with the blood of the sacrifice which was a covering for their sins.
Then we read of "the song of songs which is Solomon's." [Song of Solomon 1:1]. For Solomon "spoke three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five." [1 Kings 4:32]. But of all the songs which he wrote, there was one that was chief above them all, it was the song of songs.
Thus all through the Scriptures, though obscured by many translators, we have this phrase "to the age of the ages." It points to that age which shall be the greatest of all ages, and which finds its type in the year of Jubilee. That glorious climax to His purpose and process of the ages, wherein He says, "Behold, I make ALL things new." And when He says, "ALL", is self-evident that there is nothing remaining in the universe which shall not be made new, else all is not all.
"For He must reign, till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." [1 Corinthians 15:25-26]. When the last enemy is under His feet, destroyed, it is self-evident that none remains. Then shall God be all in all! The Amplified gives, "Be everything to everyone."
"God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." [1 John 1:5]. Thus it is self-evident that when He is all in all in me, there will be no darkness left in me, but the whole shall be light, else He is not all in all.
The sun goes down and darkness fills the room where you are sitting, then you flip the switch and "turn on the light," where does the darkness go? It is dissipated by the light, it is swallowed up into the light. It does not hide compact in a corner until later when it speaks out and overcomes the light and reigns again, it cannot overpower the light. "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." [John 1:4-5]. He is that True Light "which lights every man that comes into the world" [Verse 9], and when every man has been fully illuminated, all darkness is gone. The low vibrations of darkness shall be raised to the higher vibrations of light, and the whole restored into God again.
"Him we preach and proclaim, warning and admonishing everyone and instructing everyone in all wisdom, (in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God), that we may present EVERY PERSON mature--full-grown, fully initiated, complete and perfect-in Christ, the Anointed One." [Colossians 1:28, Amplified].
Now, we return to our thought, coming into Christ, time is a servant, not a master, though in our state of imperfection we seem to be bound by time. But consider the promise contained in the statement, "And it came to pass in the process of time..." [Exodus 2 23]. Time is transitory, it does not last, therefore everything which is related to time's processing simply COMES TO PASS, out of the future, into our present, and on into our past, for such are the workings of time. Since God fitted the ages for their purpose, and each fragment of time must obey His command, once that allotted time has been run, its process complete, it makes way for the next thing to come and be fulfilled.
But, once in a while we all feel like the Israelites, "And it came to pass, while the Ark abode in Kirjathjearim, THAT THE TIME WAS LONG; for it was twenty years." [1 Samuel 7:2]. But God sustains even in these periods, and we can say again with the Psalmist, "My times are in Your hand." It is good to know where our times are, and when we are assured that they are in God's hands, then leave your times there. He will begin and end every situation and circumstance right on schedule, and utilize every moment in between to fully work out His purpose and plan for your life. For the totality of all time is in His control, and every moment is His. This is more than recognizing that God controls the "whole scheme" of things, but also that every detail is under sovereign care, and you are His workmanship.
"I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time (appointed) for every matter and purpose and for every work." [Eccl. 3:17, Amplified].
Every degree of time, every advance into new eras, all moves according to the counsel of God, with the whole interplay of good and evil fulfilling His will. TIME IS BUT A SERVANT to fulfill His plan. And that which was given us in Christ before time began, will abide times passing, and bring us through into the glorious consummation wherein we shall be satisfied with His fulness, and redound to His glory._________________________________
TIME IS THEIR SERVANT
O grace of God that antedates
The times and ways of men,
Inworking wonders of His love
Untraced by mortal pen.To fill the purposes of God
Purposed in Christ our Lord,
To conquer every hidden foe
In times' permitted horde.A plan so great the ages course
Is fitted for its need,
Each year and month and hour move
In perfect measured speed.While wisdom joins its wonders rare
To execute God's will,
To undergird each forward step
And guide each move with skill.
With life abiding every age,
Not bound to mortal's time,
But flowing onward in great strength,
Enduring every clime.A purpose, wisdom, grace, and life,
All this to reign supreme,
Time is their servant, not their lord,
Mankind to now redeem.Letters of Truth - Revelation-A Positive Book - Spirit of the Word -
1. The Law of Circularity
2. No Second Causes
3. The Fifth Dimension
4. Time--By Divine Degrees
5. The Scent of Water
6. Christ--Our Mercyseat and Intercessor
7. Christ--Our Advocate and Ransom
8. Not In Our Stead, But For Us
9. A Joint-participation
10. Therefore Choose Life
11. The Corrective Judgments of God
12. God's Wonderful Vengeance
13. Sufficient-The Evil
14. The Potter's Field
15. Jubilee---And The Returning Field
16. By Man Also
17. What Manner of Man Is This?
18. Till All Men Know
19. To The Uttermost
20. All Things Reconciled