The 8 Aspects of Redemption - Part 6

This is track 2. I think it's very wonderful you know that word of the Apostles, of the Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians on this very point. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in all them that believe. There is the completion of the purpose of the incarnation.

Redemption, reconstituting, perfecting, glorifying, all brought to fullness in his coming. Marvel that in all them that believe. That phrase always fascinates me.

What does it mean? Why all onlookers, all intelligences looking on, looking at the saints, saying isn't he marvelous. Look at them, marvel that in all them that believe. When he shall come.

It's the consummation of the work and purpose of the incarnation. And the consummation of the earthly life in believers. But then Romans 8 touches the other aspect of redemption.

All creation groaning and trivated in pain together until now. Waiting, waiting, waiting. What for? Redemption.

The creation itself says the Apostle shall be delivered. He put his foot, his feet upon the earth and said it's mine. Come here and lived on it and triumphed on it and won the victory for it and over it.

And now it is coming. It is redeemed. The consummation of the creation.

The creation itself is delivered from the bondage of corruption. And then Romans 8 puts its finger upon the third aspect. Our bodies.

We shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty. The physical bodies of believers delivered from the bondage of corruption. You see this is all that he came to do.

All that he wrought in himself. All that was true of him. He is now making good in believers.

And although I know quite well that the words primarily apply to his deity. Yet there is a secondary application of them. It was not possible that he should be holden of death.

Thou wilt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. It was not possible that he, because he was the holy one, should be holden of death. Which is, which is the penalty of sin.

As I say primarily that relates to him as the divine Son of God incorruptible and sinless. But now he delivers the believer from sin and corruption and therefore from death. And makes good in them the thing that was true in himself.

Not making them into deity but conferring through grace upon them all the values of his own triumph. Physical redemption. You why the coming? To make good all that he came for and all that he has done.

But that's not all. Although that statement comprehends it all, we haven't broken it up into all its parts. We have said that in the cross while he was there dealing with the whole sin question.

And he dealt with it fully and finally in himself. He was more than that dealing with the whole Satan question. We have sought to stress this, emphasize this during this conference that the real, the real battle of the cross was in that cosmic realm of principalities and powers.

That's where the real battle went on. And it was a terrific battle. A terrific battle.

With every evil, sinister, dark thing of the kingdom of Satan. And it was there that the full triumph of the Lord Jesus was won. His coming again is to make that absolute, final, and good so far as the church is concerned.

We are in the battle. We are in the battle. And it is very true, the more you stand on the ground of Calvary, the more, the more you stand on the ground of the cross, the more fierce the battle becomes.

Satan hates that cross, hates that cross. You really, really spiritually stand on the ground of the meaning of the cross and you're in for a battle. He'll do anything to move you off that ground.

He's coming back to just finish that whole conflict for the church as he did it in himself, or in the church as he did it for the church. When he comes, that will finish or consummate the reign of Satan, the kingdom of darkness. That's why he is coming.

Why the coming? Well, all that all that. Well, I could say that it means many more things, but I'm not going to. But I want to bring it all to this point again.

You see, it is the coming of the Son of Man. That's how he put it. The coming of the Son of Man.

I'm sorry they changed those words, isn't that him? Singing just now? I wouldn't have had it if I'd known, if I'd been alive to it, if I'd had the other version. Oh, glorious morning, when the Son of Man shall come. That's how he put it, that's how the scriptures put it.

Not the Son of God. It's true it's the Son of God, but you understand, there's a very real point here. It was man for man as man all the way through, and it'll be that at the end.

The Incarnation has no significance if it is not man for man. The earthly life has no meaning if it is not man for man. The cross has no meaning if it is not man for man.

The same of the resurrection, the same of the ascension and enthronement, it is the man in the glory we see. Jesus, Jesus, that's his human title, crowned with glory and honor. It's man for man in heaven.

Church is the birth of the one new man by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. The coming again is man for man. It's man consummating this whole thing in relation to man, and man entering into his inheritance in Christ.

All this marvelous thing for man, for you, and for me. He's coming as the Son of Man. Tremendous, tremendous amount bound up with that title.

It's his relationship to the human race, and all his for the human race, and his representation in heaven of the human race. Present, the present appeal, present appeals to men on the basis of all that, on the basis of all that. Oh, what a Christmas.

Think of it, think of it. Think of it in the light of what we have said about the incarnation. The redemption, the reconstituting, and the perfecting and the glorifying of man.

Where does that come in, in the common Christmas of our time? Devil has just switched the whole thing over and made it a contradiction of its real meaning. He's drawn out that other man, the old man, by this very meaning, to glut himself for his own gratification. And so in everything else, the thing has been given a wrong turn.

The coming of the Lord Jesus, it will all be put right. But in the meantime, in the meantime, his appeal to us, to man, his appeal to us is on the ground of this. He came, he came for our redemption.

He came to make us different, to reconstitute us. He came to perfect us after his own image. He came to glorify us.

He's shown in his own life here that it can be done. It's been done in a man. It can be done.

He's done it. He came for, he said, the Son of Man. The Son of God is manifested to destroy the works of the devil, came to destroy the works of the devil.

He's done it in his cross. He's appealing to us on a very, very large ground. This is all for redemption.

Redemption is a tremendous thing. All the way round like this, we have a great redemption. Because we have a great Redeemer.

And tonight we are thinking of the time when he's coming to just put the last big touches to it all. Give the final, the final touch to all this wonderful redemption. Man of the earth, the whole creation, he shall come to be glorified in his saint.

Now, dear friends, we never embark upon prophecies over this matter, indulge in date fixing or anything like that. But I think I speak for more than myself when I say there's something in the air that seems to say he's coming, must be here. Seem to feel that it's not far off.

The creation groans more than ever, and we groan more than ever. Travail in this creation becoming almost unbearable. This earth needs redeeming.

God only knows what will happen to it if it isn't redeemed, this creation. All this may be the important, but whatever that may be, there's something in the spirit of the true child of God which says he's coming, he's drawing nigh. It's the only hope.

It is the only hope. There is no hope in any other direction. Everybody surely recognizes them, saved and unsaved.

Unless God Almighty intervenes, there's no hope. Ah, but he's going to intervene in his son, and there is the hope. And so the Apostle speaks of the blessed hope, the blessed hope of the coming of the Lord.

The Lord fill us with new joy in the very contemplation of his near coming to complete all that which he has begun.