The Coming Revelation

The Coming Revelation

The Godhead had it all planned before light was. The majesty and power of He who is revealed in three persons is beyond us. In fact, when asked to define a “spirit” we are at a loss. He, the Creator, is all in all, and above all. He is our life. Billions live one heartbeat from hell. Millions live one heartbeat from heaven.

To actually imagine standing before Him is both discomforting as well as thrilling. There are many things which have brought us thrilling moments. When I witnessed the birth of my first son I was beside myself. As an amateur astronomer I was overwhelmed when I saw Saturn for the first time through my telescope. As I watched the collapse of the Twin Towers my entire being shook. I watched in the early morning hours as Neil Armstrong took man’s first moon steps. I waited in line and passed by Michelangelo’s sculpture the “Pieta” which depicted Mary with a deceased Jesus stretched out upon her lap. I watched the Challenger explode in person. The first time I saw “The Passion of the Christ” I was reduced to tears in awe, gratefulness, and wonder.

What have you seen or heard which brought you some thrilling moments? Was it seeing the great mountain ranges? Was it looking across a great ocean? Was it your wedding day? Seeing your children baptized? Think back upon some monumental event which moved your very soul. Perhaps, like me, there are several.

There are many, many paintings that depict Jesus as men imagine He had looked. I am not sure how God views such things, but I do know this: No painting born out of the imagination of man has ever even approached an accurate imagery of the Lord Jesus, to say nothing of the Risen Christ in all His glory. We use the term “glory” so effortlessly and with so little authentic understanding of its meaning and implications. Go back and rehearse the events I have shared, and you will see events that are so diminutive and commonplace when compared to God’s surpassing glory.

Locked in time and space, our perspectives are imprisoned by earthly comparisons. But what about the glory of God? Who can relate a personal and complete experience with that revelation? Paul caught just a glimpse and he was rendered with temporary blindness. Moses saw God’s back side for a moment and his face shone for days. God Himself said that no man can see Him in all His fullness and glory and yet live. In order for anyone to see God in His glory he must be given a new body with new eyes and a new heart.

And so it is. Not only has God redeemed those who believe, but He has a new body that awaits our spirit. And this new body will afford us the greatest privilege ever granted a human. This new body will allow us to see and experience the glory of God as it emanates from the Risen Christ. Again, those words rattle off the tongue and the keyboard, but if we will pause and give them the meditation they deserve, we may well be thrilled ahead of time and even be changed now.

But before we are even granted a prophetic glimpse we must free our minds from the ecclesiastical traditions of man, and every vestige of erroneous presentations through the false prism of Christian television. We must reject any temptation to use earthly comparisons in order to see the veil pulled back ever so slightly. We can use our imagination if they are led by His Spirit, but we can never present our sincere thoughts to be absolute truth. The greatest and most accurate imagination of the Risen Christ is still significantly wanting and falls painfully short of what will one day be a reality.

Does this not excite your very soul? How can anything in this present world be more important and more thrilling than even a limited thought concerning the glory of God? If we allow a mental penetration into what will be, and if we surrender to its incompleteness, then we can understand what lies in store for the redeemed. Sinless in heaven, yes. No more sickness and pain, yes. All tears wiped away, yes. But all those things are fringe and tangential when we realize we will see Him as He is. These present eyes would burn within their sockets if we were given a five second glance at His risen glory.

But there we will stand one day. Basking in His everlasting power and glory, and fully engaged with the knowledge of the price that was paid for us, He will receive our worship. Do not think that in and of itself is a small thing, and please do not think that music plays the greater part of that authentic worship. Regardless of any music, our worship will be centered completely on Him. Music may be the driving force in earthly worship, but in His very presence music will only be a vehicle in which true worship and praise rises before our Redeemer.

Only then will we understand the true meaning of worship. And on that day we have no need of a worship leader since the glory of our Great God elicits our worship with a power we have never known on this planet. No one will be in need of coaxing or coercion, and in spite of our thoughts about speaking to Moses or Abraham or Paul or some loved ones, our entire beings will be consumed with Him alone! No lunch buffet distracts us, and no time restraints will dictate our worship. We then will exist in eternity where time and space are a past phenomenon, and in a trillion earth years we will still be worshiping with the exuberance, energy, and awe that we experienced during those first thrilling moments.

But it is not about our worship or anything about us at all. It is all about Him! The great company of angels bow down to His resplendent glory. Listen as the Seraphim keep saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” Incessantly they repeat that phrase without an ounce of tired redundancy. Each time they repeat those words all heaven embraces them as if they had been said for the very first time. And it isn’t the words only that move our beings, but those angelic words are juxtaposed upon the visual Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God and the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Oh, who can know such wonder!!

Look at the wonder of the heavens. See the stars which even though speak of His glory, but are nothing more than turning hydrogen into helium. Do you require more creative wonder? There are approximately 40 trillion cells in an adult human body. And comprising each cell are 100 trillion atoms. Does that make you shake your head in wonder and amazement? Well that is the creation and not the Creator. The Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, will Himself exhibit and exude more wonder and amazement than all of His creation.

You cannot imagine a trillion cells or a trillion atoms. If you stood on the equator and face east, and if you shot a gun toward the east, and if the bullet traveled parallel to the ground with the speed of light, it would pierce your body seven times in one second. And the closest star is four light years from our Sun. Go ahead, pretend you comprehend creation. But as you surrender to your pitiful mental capacity, remember that you have only surrendered to any understanding of the created universe. Now pause and ponder the glory of the Creator.

Do you now see the utter necessity of being gifted with a new body? And on that day we will know even as we are now known. These are uncharted waters of eternal glory. I hope you can see just how temporal things on this earth are. And even though the stars and galaxies are enormous and sources for wonder, their Creator will not only exhibit glory that far surpasses that of creation, He also will reveal two nail scarred hands.

What??? How can this be??? The Creator Himself, in all His eternal and unfathomable glory, will retain those unjust Roman scars??? Oh my dear friends, creation speaks of His unrivalled power, but His redemption speaks of His holiness enshrined in the mystery of His consuming love revealed in His tortured death. And when you lay eyes upon the spectacle of His unimaginable power and glory, do not forget you will see those scars throughout eternity. Who can understand and fully appreciate a God who gives His life for us, and allows those redemptive wounds to adorn His eternal image? And those scars which were designed to mar His image, now radiate to His eternal glory.

So our perspective of His glory will always be intermingled with His eternal sacrifice for us. Oh my, what love can this be? Do you not feel the spirit of worship welling up inside your heart even now? I have used the word “thrilling” since no human words can fully embrace what lies in store for us. And I leave you with the words of C.H. Spurgeon:

“Upon our first glimpse of the Risen Christ we will think ourselves a thousand fools to have ever been attracted to anything upon this earth.”

Selah. Selah, Selah….