No one can receive anything eternal and of true Kingdom worth until he receives it twice. All we are and possess must die in Christ. All that dies in Christ that will bring us fullness of joy and is of Kingdom worth will be raised in Christ and restored to us. Then it is our possession forever.

God's eternal purpose is to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one Head, under Christ.

The present world, the creation, including human beings, is a prototype. It was never meant to be permanent.

He also says, "In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end." (Hebrews 1:10-12—NIV)

Jesus Christ is eternal but the present creation is temporary.

"They will perish, but you remain."

The greatest mistake any human being can make is to regard the present creation as permanent and thus to clutch it, to cling to it, not realizing it is passing away.

Jesus spoke of the value of the flesh:

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. (John 6:63—NIV)

The present world is as seed that is to be sown in Jesus Christ. The creation that comes forth from it will be as different from the creation we now know as a tree is from the seed that is planted. Yet the new creation will come from this world just as the tree comes from the seed.

This is why our tradition of going to Heaven when we die is so limited. In fact, the idea of making our eternal home in the spirit Paradise is Gnostic rather than Christian.

It is man and the material creation that is our destiny, but man and a creation that has been sown in Christ and then raised in Christ.

The greatest picture we have of this is Christ Himself. He came into this world as a Man, but not the Man to be. The Man who came had to be brought down to death. From His death the Christ who now is has come forth. The Christ who now is, is destined to fill the entire creation with Himself. The Seed is becoming the Tree. In the case of Christ, the Seed was planted in the tree (the cross). Now out from the tree is emerging the eternal universe.

This all sounds fine and wonderful but when it works out in our life it can be critical, chaotic, traumatic.

We are born and raised in this world as a bundle of nerve endings. We inherit many tendencies and bondages along with capabilities. We have emotions. We are most vulnerable in the area of relationships. We have been given a flesh and bones body, operated by blood, that is a marvelous gift, not possessed as far as we know by any of the other creatures of God.

To be continued.