The Fullness of God

THE FULLNESS OF GOD

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Seven feasts of the Lord are set forth in the Book of Leviticus. Each of these seven feasts has a kingdom-wide fulfillment and each has a personal fulfillment in the life of the believer. The personal, spiritual fulfillment of the first four feasts are preparatory works. The last three feasts must be fulfilled in us before we are prepared to meet the Lord when He appears and to rule with Him over the nations of the earth. The spiritual fulfillment of the last three feasts is the coming of the Kingdom of God to us.

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to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)

There were seven feasts of the Lord. These are set forth in the Book of Leviticus:

Passover (Leviticus 23:5).
Unleavened Bread (23:6).
Firstfruits (23:10).
Pentecost (23:16).
Trumpets (23:24).
Day of Atonement (23:27).
Tabernacles (23:34).

Each of these seven feasts has a kingdom-wide fulfillment and each has a personal, spiritual fulfillment in the life of the believer.

The feast of Passover was fulfilled on the kingdom-wide scale when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary.

The feast of Passover is fulfilled in the personal sense when an individual puts his faith in the blood of the Lamb of God.

The Passover blood of the cross is God’s covenant with us that we shall not be destroyed when God’s wrath falls on Satan—the God of the present age.

The feast of Unleavened Bread was fulfilled on the kingdom-wide scale when Jesus descended into Hell, bearing on Himself the sins of the world.

The feast of Unleavened Bread is fulfilled in the personal sense when the believer in Christ repents of his sin and is baptized in water.

As the Lord helps us we sweep out of our lives the leaven of malice and wickedness and receive into ourselves the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The feast of Firstfruits was fulfilled on the kingdom-wide scale when the Lord Jesus rose from the cave of Joseph of Arimathea on the third day.

The feast of Firstfruits is fulfilled in personal experience as we come up out of the waters of baptism.

Christ is the firstfruits from the dead. By faith we die with Him and are born-again from the dead.

The feast of Pentecost was fulfilled on the kingdom-wide scale when the Holy Spirit fell as tongues of fire on the assembled apostles and disciples.

The feast of Pentecost is fulfilled in us when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Many today speak in tongues and find this to be helpful in following Christ. Speaking in tongues certainly is a scriptural experience.

The spiritual fulfillment of the remaining three feasts may not be as familiar to the reader as is true of the first four. We shall present our understanding of the kingdom-wide fulfillment of the last three, and then follow with the personal fulfillment.

The kingdom-wide fulfillment of the blowing of Trumpets will take place when the seven trumpets of the Book of Revelation are blown (Revelation, Chapters 8 through 11).

When the last of the seven trumpets sounds the Lord Jesus will return from Heaven. He then will take to Himself His Kingdom and the saints will be changed from mortality into immortality (I Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 11:15; I Corinthians 15:52).

The kingdom-wide, spiritual fulfillment of the memorial of blowing of Trumpets is the coming of Christ in His Kingdom to govern the world by force. Of great importance during the fulfillment of Trumpets is the organizing of the Christian Church into the army of the Lord.

The kingdom-wide fulfillment of the Day of Atonement is the thousand-year reign of Christ and His saints.

The word atonement means “reconciliation.” During the thousand years the elect will be married to God in perfect reconciliation, and the nations of the saved also will be joined to God, although not as fully as the Bride of the Lamb. Throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age the nations of the saved will be ruled in righteousness by the victorious saints (Isaiah 2:3; Revelation 2:26,27).

The thousand-year Kingdom Age is, as we have stated, the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement and includes the marriage of Christ and His saints. At the beginning of this period the Bride of the Lamb, or at least a firstfruits of the Bride, will be given the fine linen of righteous conduct to wear (Revelation 19:8).

At the end of the thousand years the Wife of the Lamb will descend from the new heaven to the new earth as the holy city, the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:10). The Church will attain completeness and perfection during the Kingdom Age, having progressed from the fine linen to the glorified new Jerusalem.

The thousand-year period is for the purpose of reconciling the Christian Church to God through Christ, and also reconciling to God the nations of saved peoples of the earth, as we understand the Divine plan.

One may protest that Christians already are reconciled to God through the blood of the cross. It is true that legally we have been reconciled to God through the blood of the cross. However, it must become true that our whole personality is reconciled to God in actuality, and it is not true that the personality of most Christians has been reconciled to God. There is much darkness in every one of us that is at war with God, with God’s will and purpose in us.

The kingdom-wide fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles is the new heaven and earth reign of Christ.

The new Jerusalem, the Wife of the Lamb, is the eternal dwelling place of God among the nations of saved peoples of the earth.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God [the Church] is with men [the saved nations], and He will dwell with them, and they [the nations] shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)

Having mentioned the kingdom-wide, spiritual fulfillment of the last three of the seven Old Testament convocations, let us consider now the personal, spiritual fulfillment.

The personal, spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament Blowing of Trumpets is the coming of Christ to establish His Kingdom in the heart of the individual. The fulfillment includes the preparing and placing of the believer concerning his or her position in the army of the Lord.

The personal, spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement is the total reconciliation of our personality to God.

The personal, spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles is the dwelling of the Father in Christ in the saint through the Holy Spirit, making it possible for God through the saint to dwell among the nations of saved peoples of the earth.

The Christian Church, the Body of Christ, is being constructed as the dwelling place of God and Christ so it may serve as a house for God in the earth.

It is our understanding that the personal fulfillment of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles will take place (although not perfectly and completely) in the victorious saints before Jesus returns, and it will be these saints who will be ready to rise to meet the Lord in the first resurrection from the dead.

It requires the fulfillment of the last three feasts in us before we are prepared adequately to meet the Lord when He appears and to rule with Him over the nations of the earth. The promises of rulership are to the victorious saints.

“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—as I also have received from My Father; (Revelation 2:26,27)

After we have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, which is the personal fulfillment of the fourth feast, we then are ready for the Lord to come to us in the personal fulfillment of Trumpets.

The personal fulfillment of the feast of Trumpets is the coming of the King, Christ, to wage war against His enemies that are in our personality, in preparation for the dwelling of God in us (the personal fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles). During our personal fulfillment of the Day of Atonement the Lord judges the darkness in us, the worldliness, lust, and self-will.

The personal, spiritual fulfillment of the first four feasts are preparatory works (Hebrews 6:1). The actual construction of God’s house commences when the Builder of the Church, Christ, comes to us in the personal fulfillment of the Blowing of Trumpets. This is when the work begins. (It is significant that the Blowing of Trumpets is New Year’s Day in the Jewish culture.)

The coming of Christ to us in the personal fulfillment of Trumpets is announced in John 14:3:

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14:3)

We suggest that the coming of the Lord is in two parts: (1) to the believer in personal fulfillment of the Blowing of Trumpets; and (2) in and with the whole group of victorious saints at the time of the Lord’s return to earth.

We suggest further that until we partake of the individual fulfillment of Trumpets it is not possible for us to be part of the Lord’s appearing to the world. The Lord Jesus is not coming alone to the world but in the company of those who share His Life. Only those who have become part of Him can be part of the kingdom-wide fulfillment of the Blowing of Trumpets, the coming of the King to the world. They alone will rule with Him over the saved nations.

When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:4)

If Christ is not our life, if we are not living in total dependence on His Person and Presence, then we are not ready to appear with Him in glory. This means that the majority of churchgoers of today may not be prepared for the coming of the Lord—partly because of the false teaching surrounding the catching up (“rapture”) of the believers.

The personal fulfillment of the feasts flows from and is part of the kingdom-wide fulfillment. The kingdom-wide fulfillment benefits the elect only as they experience the personal fulfillment.

The death of Christ on the cross of Calvary benefits us only as we appropriate this kingdom-wide fulfillment in personal fulfillment. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost benefits us only as we appropriate this event, bringing it into our experience.

So it is true that the kingdom-wide fulfillment of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles will benefit us only as we experience them in individual, personal fulfillment.

One of the greatest errors in contemporary Christian thinking is that the culminating acts of redemption will fall upon the believers without any present or future exercise of faith and obedience on their part. The current belief is that the coming of the Lord and the resurrection from the dead will bring to each Christian, no matter how lukewarm and worldly, a sovereign, inevitable deliverance.

The idea is that we shall be ready to meet the Lord and return with Him in glory because at some previous point we have made a profession of belief in His death and resurrection. We accepted Christ years ago and now we are waiting for Him to come and take us to Heaven, after which we shall return as the mightiest of kings and lords. Even if we did not have the Scriptures, our common sense ought to warn us that something is wrong with such thinking!

The spiritual aspects of the coming of Christ, the resurrection from the dead, and the Day of the Lord, are taking place in the victorious saints now just as they have in the victorious saints throughout church history.

It is now that the Lord comes to His elect. It is now that the spiritual power of the resurrection is to be grasped (Philippians 3:10,11). It is now that the Day of the Lord dawns in our hearts (II Peter 1:19; Revelation 2:28). He who has an ear to hear and eyes to see always will know of the Lord’s working. He who waits for these events to happen to him will not be prepared and will have his portion with the unbelievers.

Let us consider the following verse:

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14:3)

“I will come again, and receive you to myself.”

The context of John 14:3, which is verses 2-23 of the fourteenth chapter, suggests that verse three is not referring to the worldwide appearing of the Lord but to the coming of Jesus to the individual believer.

Notice, for example:

“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:18)
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23)

Compare John 14:3,18,23:

“I will come again, and receive you to myself.”
“I will come to you.”
“We will come to him.”

We shall appear with the Lord in His historical, kingdom-wide coming to the world (I Thessalonians 4:17; Revelation 1:7) only if we previously have experienced His coming to us in the personal fulfillment of the last three feasts.

The Lord Jesus will appear to the individual believer before He reveals Himself to the world.

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21)

How will Christ reveal Himself to the individual believer but not to the world?

Judas asked this question (verse 22), and the Lord Jesus answered him:

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23)

The Scripture declares plainly that there is a coming of Christ (with the Father, who always dwells in Christ) to the individual believer, and also a kingdom-wide coming of Christ, at the last trumpet, to take to Himself His Kingdom (Revelation 11:15).

We believe that the personal fulfillments of the Blowing of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement already have begun. Those believers who are seeking the Lord with their whole heart are finding that God is judging them. Every thought, every word, every action is being tried by fire.

Every aspect of our personality that cannot survive the fire of God is being burned away and the new Life of Christ is being born in its stead.

The personal fulfillment of the Day of Atonement in us as an individual is the reconciling of us to God through Christ. Even though by faith we have applied the Passover blood of the cross, have repented and been baptized in water, have been born again, and have been baptized with the Holy Spirit, we still have not been reconciled perfectly to God’s Person and will. The most superficial observation of the ranks of Christendom will demonstrate this fact.

Today the Lord Jesus is coming to us in the personal fulfillment of the Blowing of Trumpets for the purpose of announcing and commencing the reconciling of us to Himself (and to God) perfectly and completely. Christ alone is the Builder of the house of God (“on this rock I will build my church”). Jesus is coming to us to construct us as the house of God.

Christ is the true and only High Priest over the house of God. His attitude toward His churches is described in Revelation, Chapters One through Three.

As we read these three chapters carefully we can see that Christ is not entirely complimentary. He is looking at His churches with His eyes of fire, pointing out to us that He has not found our works perfect before God.

“Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. (Revelation 3:2)

Christ does not praise the churches for their profession of faith in Himself. He rebukes them sternly. He comes to the churches to judge the house of God. Christ appears to the churches to “purify the sons of Levi” (Malachi 3:3). His fan is in His hand as He purges His threshing floor (Matthew 3:12). He has come to reconcile the saints to God.

Christ, the High Priest of God, brings the Day of Atonement to the elect in individual fulfillment prior to His rule during the thousand-year period. The revealing of our worldliness, lusts, and self-seeking makes it necessary for us to pray continually for strength to walk in victory with the Lord. This season of repentance and humiliation can prove to be the greatest crisis of our discipleship.

If we emerge victorious from the rigors of the Day of Atonement we will be brought into the marvelous inheritance that accompanies the spiritual fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles. We will enter the rest of God. The rewards to the overcomer are given to the faithful individual, never to the churches as a whole. The promises are to “him” who overcomes.

In Matthew 21:4-14 we see the pattern of the culminating works of redemption:

The Blowing of Trumpets—the coming of the King.
The Day of Atonement—the cleansing of God’s house.

First, we have the coming of the King:

“Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” (Matthew 21:5)

Then, the cleansing of God’s house:

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” (Matthew 21:12,13)

There is only one eternal house of God, and that is Christ—Head and Body. Christ is standing today at the door of each Christian heart. If we hear His voice and open the door He will come in to us and will dine with us.

When Christ comes into our personality He discovers that “moneychangers” are operating in our heart. He drives them out. No man can serve God and money. It is time for judgment to begin in the house of God.

Each Christian saint is to be a house of prayer. Our whole life is to be one of holy worship and supplication to the Father. How blessed it will be to be filled with the fullness of the Father and the fullness of the Son through the fullness of the Holy Spirit!

How much better to dwell in green pastures beside the quiet waters, with the Lord Jesus, than to have a heart full of covetousness, strife, confusion, and all the other wretched elements present when we are concerned with the things of the world.

O to be a house of prayer, to be filled with all the fullness of God!

No true saint desires to be a “den of thieves”! May Christ come to us, purify us, and give us the Divine peace that flows like a river. God has better things for us than we see today.

The voice of Christ (the “trumpet,” to speak figuratively), called Lazarus from the grave (John 11:43). Then there was the problem of the graveclothes.

What are the graveclothes? What is there about the forgiven, water-and-Spirit-baptized, born-again believer that has not as yet been completely reconciled to God through Christ?

There are three areas of our personality that have not as yet been wholly reconciled to God: (1) the love of the world; (2) the sins of our flesh; and (3) our self-will. Is this true in your life?

Christ commands us to turn away from our trust in the world economic system, our attraction toward the things of the world, and to give to God in Heaven our trust and love. The disciple of Jesus must forsake his attachment to the world, take up his cross, and follow the Lord.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. (I John 2:15,16)

We know that we love the world when we sit by the hour and watch the television.

Christ deals with the sins of our flesh through the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. As we walk in the Spirit, the Lord shows us our sins one at a time. We confess our sins and by the power of the Spirit we put them to death.

We do not struggle endlessly against our sins. We kill them by confession, vigorous repentance, the cleansing of the blood, and then determined resistance. The Word, the blood of the Lamb, and the Spirit of God are sufficient to enable us to overcome every sin.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1)
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)

We are reconciled to God in the area of our love for the world and also our love for the sins of the flesh.

The third unreconciled area of our personality is our self-will, our self-love, our self-centeredness. It may be true that our self-will is more of an enemy of Christ than are the demon-prompted lusts that drive us and keep us in the chains of spiritual darkness.

Our self-will (the Leviathan that lurks in the caverns of our soul) finally is conquered by a lifetime of cross-carrying obedience to Christ. We must present our body a living sacrifice, a whole burnt-offering to God. We must take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus.

We do not have the choice of deciding to believe in Christ and then not giving our life to Christ. If we are unwilling to turn over our life as a bondslave to Christ it is impossible for God to complete the work of redemption in us. We will slay our resurrection. It is not possible for the self-willed “Christian” to rise to meet the Lord when He appears.

Numerous believers of our day have received Christ as Savior but not as Lord. Their end is not enviable.

God sends tribulation, perplexity, pressure, to aid in the conquest of our self-will, self-confidence, self-love.

The final result of victory over worldliness, sin, and self-will (all accomplished through the grace of Christ) is perfect, complete rest in God’s Presence. It is perfect, complete reconciliation to God’s Person and will.

As our personal fulfillment of Trumpets prepares us for the kingdom-wide appearing of the Lord, so our personal fulfillment of the Day of Atonement (Day of Reconciliation) prepares us for the rule of Christ’s rod of iron, the scepter of righteousness, throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

The final feast, the feast of Tabernacles, has a kingdom-wide fulfillment and a personal fulfillment so stupendously above our comprehension at this time we only can state that they are at hand and then mention them briefly. Surely, Jesus has kept the good wine until now.

First, let us consider God’s point of view. God is building a house for His purposes. We are being made God’s house. It is not as important that we are pleased and obtain what we want as it is that God is pleased and obtains what He desires.

Until the believer understands that pleasing the Lord God is the main consideration of the Christian redemption he always will be attempting to manipulate the Christian discipleship so it will make sense to him and benefit him. Such self-seeking causes us to lose the Glory of God.

The house is being built for God. We indeed will be pleased with it, with what God has accomplished in us; but that is of secondary importance. The house is for God to dwell in. We can understand from this why self-will is such an enemy of Christ, such a hindrance to the plan of redemption.

When the work of reconciliation has been accomplished in us, the Father and the Son will make Their eternal abode in us. We shall become a pillar in the Temple of God.

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23)

John 14:23 (above) is not speaking of the eternal dwelling of the Holy Spirit in us; it is, as it states, referring to the coming of the Father and the Son to dwell in us.

“My Father will love him, and we will come to him.”

The members of the Godhead never are confused as to identity. The Father is not Christ but dwells in Christ. Christ is not the Holy Spirit but is filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit did not die for our sins. We are not the brothers or the bride of the Holy Spirit.

The Scripture indicates that there is a fullness of God beyond the baptism with the Holy Spirit. This fact is borne out in Ephesians 3:14-19. We are being strengthened by the Holy Spirit in order that we may be filled with all the fullness of God.

to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)

Today the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us. We minister and grow in righteousness and holiness by the Holy Spirit. But the manifestations of the Spirit are fragmentary. We are seeing in a clouded mirror, as it were.

The Lord Jesus Christ did not walk and minister in a fragmentary manifestation of the Spirit. Christ was (and is) filled with all the fullness of God.

When the work of reconciliation has been accomplished in us, God will fill us with all the fullness of Himself in the personal fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles. There is coming an experience in God that will exceed in glory our most wondrous dreams. Jesus and His Father will take up Their abode in us as the Father dwells in Jesus.

When will this take place?

We submit that this glorious experience, this climax of redemption, will take place in the victorious saints just prior to the return of Christ to the earth. The entrance of the Father and the Son into us will serve as a “trumpet” announcing the worldwide appearing of the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Glory of the coming of God will flash as lightning through His saints from one end of the heavens to the other.

Antichrist will behold the Glory of Christ but will be helpless before it. Christ will, in full view of Antichrist and the nations of the earth, call up to Himself His Church, now glorified and ready to be revealed in glory.

The nations of the earth will behold this glory. In that hour, all earth’s peoples will know that God has sent Christ.

“that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that you sent Me. (John 17:21)

Some of the nations, knowing that Christ has come from God, will fight against Him, attempting to prevent His entrance into the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. They will be destroyed. The birds of the earth will be filled with their flesh, as David warned Goliath.

“This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. (I Samuel 17:46)
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God,
“that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great.” (Revelation 19:17,18)

The remainder of the nations will come to the glorified saints to receive the blessing of the Lord.

The Gentiles [nations] shall come to your [God’s elect] light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:3)

Notice when this unparalleled glory will arise on the saints:

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. (Isaiah 60:2)

We know that Christ will return at the “midnight hour.” At the climax of the spiritual darkness that soon will cover the earth, the Father and the Son will enter the saints. At that time, God dwelling in His saints in the personal fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles will “roar” against His enemies.

The Spirit of Christ in Joel reveals these events clearly:

The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their brightness.
The LORD also will roar from Zion [body of Christ], and utter His voice from Jerusalem; the heavens and earth will shake; but the LORD will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
“So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy, and no aliens shall ever pass through her again.” (Joel 3:15-17)

When Jesus returns it will be the dead “in Christ” who will rise (I Thessalonians 4:16). What does it mean to be in Christ ? To be in Christ means to participate in the personal, spiritual fulfillment of each of the seven feasts as they are presented to us by the Holy Spirit.

We cannot stop with the first three, or with the first four, and then forget about the remainder of God’s program of redemption. Hebrews 3:18 warns us concerning the peril of coming short of the fullness of God’s plan. Like the Ark of the Covenant, the Lord Jesus always is moving forward. If we are to abide in Him we must continue believing and pressing forward in Him until we enter the promised-land rest of God.

When the Lord returns, the victorious saints will be made immortal. By victorious we mean they have embraced the program of redemption, not stopping at any point. They have been cleansed from worldliness, sin, and self-seeking and now are living stones in the eternal Temple of God. They are true disciples of the Lord Jesus, not just churchgoers.

God in His mercy will not issue immortality in the body to the believer who has not been diligent in the program of redemption. An immortal sinner cannot be redeemed. He must be cast down in spiritual chains and receive his portion with the fallen angels.

The rewards designated for the overcomer will be issued only to the overcomer!

God prevented Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of life so that in time He could redeem them. If they, in their sinful, self-willed state, had partaken of immortality they would have been bound in chains and confined in the eternal darkness.

God has placed Adam and Eve and all their descendants in bodies of clay, in a state of futility. This is so God may have a chance to deliver them from trust in the world, from sin, and from self-will. God has imprisoned us in these humbled bodies in the hope that through Christ we can be reconciled to God.

It can be seen, therefore, that God in His love will not raise into Christ’s fiery Presence a believer who has not been redeemed fully. Should such an unfortunate soul appear among the “guests” while clothed in his worldliness, sins, and self-seeking, the King soon will come and command His servants to bind the sinner and cast him into outer darkness (Matthew 22:11-14).

Today Christ is coming to each of us as an individual. He is knocking at the door of our heart in fulfillment of the Old Testament Blowing of Trumpets. He desires to enter our heart and dine with us, and we with Him in fulfillment of the Day of Reconciliation.

If we will allow Him to do so He shall cleanse us from all sin and self-seeking until we find rest in His Presence. He will bring the Father and they shall sit on the throne of our personality in fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles.

Christ is constructing the house of God. He is preparing each stone so it can be filled with all the fullness of God. The stones are being fashioned “at the quarry.”

And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. (I Kings 6:7)

When the last stone has been perfected the whole temple will flow together “without the sound of a hammer.” The unity of the Body of Christ is not a goal that will be accomplished by the efforts of well-intentioned believers. The unity of the Body will come into being naturally as each living stone is brought into the image of Christ and into union with Christ.

When the Lord builds up Zion He will appear in His Glory. Then shall the eternal Temple be filled with all the fullness of God.

(“The Fullness of God”, 3938-1)