Who He Made Us To Be

 

Who He Made Us To Be

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. ..."

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."

 ^"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

     I had a talk with my son yesterday.  We were celebrating his middle daughter’s baptism.  Very proper as she spoke into the microphone and told the congregation why she came this far to obedience.

     It’s all about change.  We have got to change.  Maybe a poor metaphor, but a snake continually sheds its skin. It grows and something has to give.  So she made that decision not to follow her own trajectory but bend to the upward calling of Jesus.  I shed a tear when she said I was one of those who had helped her make that decision.  Baptism is huge!

     But that is an outward sign of turning away from the past shame.  Laying that to rest in the grave with Jesus, we can have confidence in our resurrection with Him that we are different.  Yet, we are still the same.

     All these pictures are wonderful, but our being does not fundamentally change.  Only in rebirth, do our spirits light up.  From there we hike (or trudge) through this world till we don new bodies fit to be in our Father’s presence.

     We Christians are in quite the dilemma.  In ourselves, we hold the burning fire of God.  Much hotter than the sun, His power can vaporize faster than Little Boy on Hiroshima.  We have understood before that we are vile.  Utterly corrupt in the state of our fleshly sins.  So what happened?  How does He stand to live with us?

     Jesus is the insulator.  Like a thermos bottle cut in half, the inner cylinder does not touch the outer covering.  As in high-power lines, the insulators keep the naked wire from the pole which lifts it up.  We are to lift Him up, but we are not consumed.

     Jesus is the great One who stands before God and Man.  He knows full well the Holiness of God and the frailty of Man.  He has been both places.  We who believe in Him and have accepted His gift continue in this quasi state until Christ redeems our bodies.  We are perfect within imperfection.  The Spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.  He has to wait before His family comes home united.  We must put on incorruptible to be in His presence.  His light must shine 100% through us.  If any dark spot is there, it absorbs the energy and ignites itself.  So is the radiance of our Father.  Until then, we have Jesus here in our frail vessels yet holding liquid gold.

     What a weird race of people we are!  Sons of man turned sons of God.  This planet is not fit for us for we are in the kingdom and co-inherit the riches of God with Christ.  We indeed are royalty.  Other bastard children and squirmy imps only pollute our feet as we trod.  We are marked indelibly.  Our great God has begun the work He will finish giving us a guarantee.  He gave us Himself.  His presence in our temples will never leave.  Together we will rejoice one day.