Hope is eternal.
Too often the Church has yet to see “hope” already fulfilled in Christ. The “hope of Israel” was fulfilled in the Resurrection. God’s subjection of the creation (Natural Israel) to vanity (of the Law), was in a hope that was fulfilled
at “the manifestation of the sons of God” Rom. 8:19-23. This was fulfilled in 70 A.D, when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Church was manifest to be the “sons of God” the true Israel, temple, and City of God. And when you read about “the hope of eternal life” it is not about hoping to go to heaven. Christ in you is the object of this eternal hope. If we see ourselves as the object our eye is not single.
“The mystery having been hidden from the ages and from the generations, but now was revealed to His saints; to whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations, who is Christ in you, the hope of glory” Col. 1:26-27 LITV
In the same way the Church often teaches things like “Christ is in you” gives you a hope that you will get into glory after you die. But the context shows us that the Holy Spirit was showing us that “now” Christ in you is the Glory that Israel hoped for. It is Christ in you is the mystery “now was revealed to His saints”
In seeing Christ so many of these hopes are seen finished that it is easy to assume that all future hope is fulfilled because we do not hope for what we already have. But the hope of continuing on knowing the One we already have perfectly abides eternal
Knowing Christ is the only eternal thing. It is the continual perpetual, expectoration. Jesus alone is the object of this eternal expectation.
In English the term “hope” is a very flimsy kind of expression. It about the same as wishing for something. Expectation is closer to the “hope” written of in the scriptures.
My employer doesn’t hope I will do my job. He has expectation of me. I have expectation in Him.
In seeing Him we see complete perfection.
And we become sure nothing can ever be future because we have seen Him, we have seen all. And it is so.
And then He appears again.
And in this we are made to bear more of Him.
He is magnified. He is magnified in a way that is greater and greater in brilliance than before. This increase is the experience of the soul being made to bear a more enlarged view of Him. The experience is real. But the experience is not reality. This is the Person of Reality is filling displacing, not just my perception, but my identity, who I am. Perfection is seen more and more, on and on I see more of what is already done, it was always finished before the foundation of the world. The more I know Him in His appearing the more I see that this expectation is eternal. Always growing to His increase.
“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, If the grain of wheat that falls into the earth does not die, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jn. 12:24-25
This was God’s expectation in the cross. This is His why. The eternal purpose of the cross was all about the expectation of His increase. And a view of His glory is required for this transformation.
A language is pronounced “dead” whenever there is only one left to speak it. The nature of language is that it lives as it is expressed “One with another”. This means something very different from having fellowship with each other. So it is in Christ. I am not really talking about words or languages. Words mean little to Him because Because He is the Word of God. God does not communicate Himself by language.
He comes.
There is no conclusion to His increase. Isaiah 9:7
So there is an eternal expectation. He comes as our One and only Life. All that He is made present to the destruction and removal of all that is apart from Him.
This is glory. He is the object of increase. This is the purpose of the cross. If there is no room in our heart for the increase of the One then we have yet to see Jesus’ hope in the cross. When the New Testament speaks to us about the “Hope,” Christ is the object of this great expectation. If we see ourselves as the object of salvation our eye is not single.
The twenty four elders do not worship Him out of duty or for any reward. They fall down and worship because they are continually in awe of the One who continues unveiling Himself in the newness of all that He is. The twenty four elders fall down and “bow before Him who is living to the ages of the ages, and they cast their crowns before the throne, saying, `Worthy art Thou, O Lord, to receive the glory, and the honour, and the power.” Rev. 4:10-11
This is an eternal view of worship. The division between soul and Spirit is eternal. You dont get to be God. And you don’t grow up into becoming Christ. Those who are saying this may be enjoying the new marajuana laws too much. You filled within and clothed without with Christ. We all have tried to bring our things into Christ. In His appearing we see Him and so the things of self seem the more appalling. They have no place here. The casting off of our crowns is just the displacement of all that is not Him. The crowns were ours, our accomplishments our best, our own glorying etc. We cast them down in seeing Him. Our crowns are not Christ. They are not our unique expressions of Christ. There is no such thing. Only Christ. In seeing Him we see there is nothing of our own.
Only Christ.
Because it is God who said, “Out of darkness Light shall shine,” who shone in our hearts to give the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Isa. 42:6, 7, 16 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the excellence of the power may be of God, and not from us” 2 Cor 4:6-7
My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor 12:9
The casting off of crowns is not worship. We cast down our crowns because we would remove ourselves as far as we can from them.
The worship is seeing Him; seeing what is not Him is outside of faith. Worship is His adoration. As we see Him we begin to see that there is no end of Him or of His appearing. And so the expectation continues eternal. I am afraid for the heart that can only say I “saw” the Lord. His appearing is never past. Never history. Therefore the expectation is eternal.
The Testimony requires the Witness.
What do I mean?
The only proof of faith, hope, and love, is Christ revealed in you.
Only the Father can reveal His Son in you. And the testimony of scripture declares this.
A relationship of union in the Author is the witness, and the goal; His opening of the scriptures is a result. If you wait on The Author, He does open the scriptures.
Our translations have made a mess of things, but He has faithfully guarded the testimony. The more literal the translation the more clearly we see that the writers of the New Testament have always declared the Gospel to be Christ revealed in you. The Gospel is not a message, or a teaching, He is Jesus living in His people.
In places Paul can be “hard to understand” (2 Pe. 3:16) because at times he writes hypothetically, as if he is yet under the law when he is not.
Paul told us that he wrote this way:
“For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.” 1 Cor. 9:19-20
Romans seventh chapter is a perfect example of this. Romans 7:1 begins: “I am speaking to those who know the law.” This is how it is when you see yourself. Seeing yourself is an Old Covenant relationship; this is seeing in part. But Romans Chapter eight is all about how it is now “in Christ”, we with an unveiled heart, in a “face to face” relationship, this New Covenant relationship is “now there is not even one bit of condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 8:1 Wuest.
The confusion isn’t in hearts because of his style of writing, it is there because of an absence of relationship with the Author of scripture. Many people read Romans chapter seven and assume that Paul was still conflicted when he wrote those words. But it is because Paul wrote specific letters to specific Churches. Had he known that the whole Church would come to read his letters as if they were addressed to the whole, I expect He would have said things differently. For the same reason there is a lot of misunderstanding about the end of Corinthians thirteen
Because the Corinthians (also the Thessalonians) were not yet able to bear some of the things revealed (as the Ephesians and Colossians could for example) Paul could not speak to the Corinthians in the same way. He could not speak to them as Spiritual but only as “infants in Christ” So he could only feed them milk, not solid food. 1 Cor. 3:1.
We should keep this in mind when we read this next passage.
“Love never fails. And whether there be prophecies, they shall become inactive; or tongues, they shall cease; or knowledge, it shall be inactive. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be inactive. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child. But when I became a Man, I have made inactive the things of the child. For yet we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Yet I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am fully known. And now faith, expectation, and love remain – these three. But the greatest of these is Love.” 1 Cor. 13:8-13ELT
When Paul writes “yet we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face“. This is another place where Paul goes hypothetical on us. He is just coming down to meet them where they are to walk them through this. He has made himself as one who has not seen Him face to face, so that he may win those who have yet to see “face to face”. We should not take this to mean that Christ cannot be known face to face until the after life. Many have have taken this to be some proof that the Church can only see Yahweh in the dull shadows that were only reflections of Him until some glad day when this life is o’er.
Mistranslations only add confusion. Most translations read:
“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now (ἄρτι 737) we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now (ἄρτι 737) I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now (νυνί 3570) faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” ESV. 1 Cor. 13:11-13
Paul wasn’t saying I can only imagine, (that song makes my skin crawl), As if we can only see a dark reflection for now, only know in part now, as if in this world we can only have a temporal kind of faith hope and Love.
No thank you. This is false.
Let’s look at these three “now”s. They are not the same word in the original language. The first two are ἄρτι (737) and they point toward the first. Seeing as in a glass darkly and knowing in part are to be associated with the things of the child: unfulfilled prophecies, tongues, partial knowledge, These become inactive when that which
Perfect is come, that is, Christ in you.
So faith, hope and love abide now and are to be associated with the perfect New Covenant, “face to face” relationship. This is to be lumped in with knowing by God’s full knowledge in Christ. I do not become mature. The coming of the perfect Man is maturity. He is our end.
Nestle rightly translates the first two “ἄρτι”s as “yet” and the last, νυνί: “now”. So it should read like this:
“Love never fails. And whether there be prophecies, they shall become inactive; or tongues, they shall cease; or knowledge, it shall be inactive. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be inactive. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned as a child. But when I became a Man, I have made inactive the things of the child. For yet we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Yet I know in part, but then I shall know, even as I am fully known. And now faith, expectation, and love remain – these three. But the greatest of these is Love.” 1 Cor. 13:8-13 ELT.
That last “now” is an eternal now in Christ.
Here are some other examples of how Paul uses νυνί 3570:
“But now a righteousness of God has been revealed apart from Law, being witnessed by the Law” Rom. 3:21
“Now, having been freed from the sin, and having become servants to God, ye have your fruit–to sanctification, and the end Life age-during.” Rom. 6:22 YLT.
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near.” Eph. 2:13
“Now we all with uncovered face mirroring The Lord’s glory, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory even as from The Lord, the Spirit” 2 Cor. 3:18 CLV
“Mirroring” His glory is about “The Spirit Himself bearing witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God.” Rom. 8:16. This is no proof of a distinction between a human spirit and The Spirit. You are a soul. Jesus did not say God is a spirit. As if God is just another spirit. The definite article was used here. It literally says, “God is The Spirit” Jn. 4:24. You do not have a Spirit except The Spirit Himself. “Our Spirit” bears witness because “our Spirit” is “the Spirit Himself”. And when you see Him, He is not off away in heaven. He is in your hearts. “The expectation does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us” Rom. 5:5.
Mirroring His Glory is about being made to see as He sees; Knowing Him “face to face”1 Cor. 13:12, is now. It is a New Covenant relationship.
When you see someone looking into a mirror it seems as if there are two, but there is only one because the mirror only reflects the image of One. There is an increase of God’s image. The Spirit Himself bears witness by reflecting and in our Spirit showing that we are the children of God. There is no addition to Christ. This is not the face of your soul and God’s face looking at each other.
No.
It is an increase of the same image. It is Him. This mirroring is about His appearing in you. It is just Him and His increase in you.
“And their faces are one towards another—towards the mercy-seat are the faces of the cherubs. ‘And thou hast put the mercy-seat on the ark above, and unto the ark thou dost put the testimony which I give unto thee; and I have met with thee there, and have spoken with thee from off the mercy-seat (from between the two cherubs” Ex 25:20-22 LITV
Why would the the ark of the testimony show two Cherubim “face to face” on the mercy seat in the holy of holies?
There were never really two.
This testified of the increase of One.
It was always about His Appearing in you.
It's all Him 