The Perfectness of Redemption

We too by faith see the One with whom we are united there in the glory for us, and we know the perfectness of redemption. This is because, if He as a man is standing where redemption has brought Him, He gives the Holy Spirit as the seal of our full participation in this place with Him. We have to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to know and enjoy it.
"We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." The effect on Stephen of seeing Christ in glory as the fruit of accomplished redemption is that he is changed into the same image. What did Jesus say on the cross? "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." What did Stephen say? "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He does not say, "I commend," but he can say, "Receive my spirit." Thus we see the same spirit animating Stephen. He has the same unhesitating confidence in the Person he was looking to.
What is death here? "Absent from the body, and... present with the Lord." Thus we see the Spirit of Christ in Stephen as he looks upwards. And when he looks down on those who were stoning him, what does he say? Jesus said, "Father, forgive them," and in the same spirit Stephen says, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." It is lovely to see that the moral effect—grace—is just the result of looking up steadfastly at Jesus.