The Lord Jesus is the One who sanctifies us with His blood, His Spirit, and His Word. He and we are all from the same God, the same Father. On this basis He is not ashamed to call us brothers.

Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. (Hebrews 2:12)

The Lord Jesus, our elder Brother, declares the name of His Father to us. He reveals the Father to us.

All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (Matthew 11:27)

The Son reveals the Father to those whom He has chosen.

While we of the churches are singing praises to the Father, the Lord Jesus is raising holy hands in Heaven and singing praises to the Father.

Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)

The Logos has been made like us so He can serve as our Priest before the Father. Christ is able to save us to the uttermost because He ever lives to make intercession for us.

We have a heavenly calling. It is to respond to God's eternal purpose to which we have been summoned. The Father knew us before the creation of the world. He predestined us to be a brother of Christ. He called us. He justified us. He has in mind to glorify us.

Our responsibility is to lay hold on the heavenly calling, to not come short of it. The Book of Hebrews warns us that we will not escape the judgment of God if we neglect to press each day into the perfect rest of God, into the place of abiding where God's unhindered will is being exercised in us.

The thousand-year Kingdom Age. In between the present deteriorating world and the new world there will be a thousand-year (whether literal or figurative) period in which the Lord Jesus and His victorious saints in glorified bodies will be governing flesh and blood people—the people of the nations of the saved. The capital city of the earth will be physical Jerusalem.

It appears the purpose of the thousand-year interval between the deteriorating world and the new world is to provide a buffer, a period of submission, reconciliation, and adjustment. It is likely that during this period the Bride will be perfected. No doubt the new Jerusalem, the new heaven, and the new earth will be so spectacularly more resplendent in Divine Glory than anything we ever have experienced that we could not enter the holy city as we are now. We shall need the Kingdom Age to refine our personalities until we are ready to behold the Face of God.

Esther had to have six months of the bitter and six months of the sweet before she was presented to the King. We are having our six months of bitter during our pilgrimage on the earth. During the Kingdom Age we shall have our six months of the sweet as we work alongside of the Lord Jesus and become accustomed to the holiness and purity of the heavenly Kingdom.

The thousand-years may be a period of transition from earth's dark valleys to the Divine Glory of the new Jerusalem.

To be continued.