| HE is now All in me, and in all others. He was All to me, now He is All in
me. He is Everything in me. There is nothing in me that is not from Him and of
Him. What have I that I have not received? To Him be glory! All that could be meant by any
kind of relationship, He is That to me. Yet earthly ties were severed. From Him I cannot
be severed. More than could have been said of any friendship. He is more than that to me,
and yet more. Every need is supplied. Truly He is our Shepherd we do not want. We find pasture. In the earthen vessel we had a mere foretaste, now in the heavenly vessel we have inexpressible fullness. His will is our will. Beyond our highest expectations there is sure fulfillment of the word which said: They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou wilt make them to drink of the river of Thy pleasures. His delights are ours. Things that gratify the heart of the Father, alone satisfy us now. There is no weariness. All is rest. It was said that "His rest shall be glorious" but the better rendering is "His resting- place is glory" (Isa.11:10). Under His protection, there is nothing contrary to peace, lasting peace. Not only were we reconciled to God, through the blood of His Son, but we have been brought into a permanent state of reconciliation to Him and consequently to all. Every created being is at peace one with the other. We rejoice in an unbreakable union with Him, and are full partakers of His holiness. His righteousness is ours; His health is ours; His life is ours. Sinless, disease-less, deathless are merely negative. We are in full enjoyment of their opposites-- righteousness, health, life which fill the whole universe to the exclusion of all sin, all disease, all death everywhere. The former things have passed away, belonging like scaffolding to the eons only. They never had, nor can have, any place in God's finished purpose. There are no dead people, nor any who are dying. God said that death should be abolished. Christ secured the keys of death and hades, and triumphed, so that Paul and others could peer into the future and exclaim, "O Hades, where is thy victory?" The veil that was spread over the faces of people in all nations has been completely removed. God has wiped away all tears, and made a feast of fat things to all people. It is right here before us, and the half was not told, nor the tenth. There is no dross in any creature. We have now a perfect understanding of His righteous judgments during the eons. We are not surprised that the enlightened Psalmist "hoped" in them, and gave word pictures of general rejoicing based upon the knowledge of the coming of the Lord to judge the earth in righteousness, equity, and truth. The morning stars are singing together again, and all the sons of God are shouting for joy. The strange sight of joyless angels, under abnormal conditions, is no longer in evidence. God's objective has been reached. We could have seen this more clearly before, had we considered His infinite resources, for He was El Shaddai, the All Bountiful. Moreover, our minds were more or less blinded by tradition and incorrect translations of His real Word, which led to unfortunate misrepresentations of God Himself. Practical benefit came to many, however, in knowing and believing the true love of God. What a wonderful help in reaching the measure of the statute of Christ, no longer being tossed to and fro! Beulah land was our portion, whence we could discern more clearly through the prophetic telescope the very things that are now before our eyes. Then there was real danger of unwisely thinking of God as "altogether such an one as thyself," in the language of Psalm 50:21. He is Love. We, as first-fruits, were samples of God's plan of love-control for the whole creation. Kingdom purposes have worked out admirably. The perfected work has been delivered up without anything lacking and God is really and truly All in all. Having brought the race into existence, the salvation of no one was left to so-called chance. No "chance" was in it. Severe punishment was not an end in itself, but a divinely appointed means to a glorious goal. As a result, all hearts are now normal. Love-control obtains everywhere. God has made all things new. He has had mercy upon all. The life-giving acquittal extended to the whole race. As in Adam all were dying, even so in Christ have all been made alive. Through the disobedience of the one the mass of mankind were constituted sinners, even so through the obedience of the One have the mass of mankind been constituted righteous. Here they are before us, not one prodigal missing, because salvation is of grace. God assumed the responsibility for the complete rehabilitation of the race and laid upon Christ the iniquity of all. He now sees of the travail of His soul, and all of us can see that He is satisfied. God is making merry, for these, His offspring, have been found. He would not make merry to the full with any of them absent. O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! He is, indeed, a faithful Creator. "I kill, and I make alive (see 1 Cor.15:22); I wound, and I heal" (Deut.32:39). "He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up" (Hosea 6:1). We followed on to know the Lord whose "going forth is sure as the morning." The finishing touches have been put upon us "His achievement," redemption supplementing creation, and bringing to pass, as nothing else could, the glory of God which was the grand ultimate purpose. The last ones came in, and they likewise received in full from Christ, Who said "It is my will to give unto this last even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with mine own?" (Matt.20). Our lot was to receive and enjoy salvation with the glory of the ages, and that they without us should not come to fruition. The receiving back of Israel, too, was as Paul said, "life from the dead" (Rom.11:15). Through their fall salvation came to us gentiles. We were greatly enriched through their stumbling. But still greater good than that followed their restoration. And all the gentiles called upon God. "Behold the goodness and the severity of God." Christ has completely abolished death, the death state, the second death, and undone the works of the Slanderer. The terrific fires of judgment for the ages were not in vain. All were made alive in Him. Glancing back to the evil age in which we lived on the earth, we can see that it was wise to "wait for God's Son from heaven" and it was our high privilege to be in close cooperation with Him during the great millennial period. Although we had our resurrection bodies, God was not yet All in all. In due time we were ushered into the grand reconstruction eon called by the spirit of God the eon of the eons. Still cooperating lovingly with the Head of all, we could see ultimate glory looming up with a bigness we had not fully anticipated. Finally the "last enemy" was vanquished. The eons came to a close, the deathless day dawned. Glorious sights were everywhere to be seen, indicative of God's highest thought for His creatures. The rocky detour, called eonian time, was to be traversed no more. The great climax was reached so long ago that it is difficult to express it in understandable terms. God planned to be All in all. His wonderful love-plan has not failed. The whole race in heaven and on earth, is now one affectionate family with God as our Father. He is All in all mankind. There is no exception. The death and resurrection of Christ made this certain. Thus it was written in the Book that was our chart. God wrote All in all. What He proposed He has accomplished, exceeding abundantly above what we could ask or think. It was more than profitable for us away back there in the evil eon to fix our mind on God's great goal. It proved uplifting. We felt lighter in our souls. We looked beyond the millennium, and even far beyond the astonishing eon of the eons as if directed by another, even the spirit of God. Our hearts were all aglow. We looked unto Him, and were made radiant. With this grand goal in view, our afflictions seemed "light," indeed. Our whole being was quickened, as we committed all to Him. The thought of ultimate universal victory helped us in every day victories, and strengthened us to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Now God is All in all. You, too, are included in the all-- you are there. The expression is so full of meaning that we cannot hope to fathom its depths even. As we look back we praise Him for a vision of this full and affectionate finish to cheer our hearts until the time of its accomplishment. |