Seeing Jesus Christ

SEEING THE PLACE AND DESTINY OF MAN IN GOD’S ECONOMY

If there is one burden that is ever upon the heart of the Holy Spirit it is the burden of revealing Jesus Christ to His people. That indeed is the blessed commission of the Spirit—to reveal the Christ to one and all. (John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.)

The seeing of Jesus—how comprehensive and ground-breaking it is! A true seeing will change one’s whole outlook on life and bring one into the reality of several heavenly realities! The old will go and the new will come. A true seeing of Christ will open up a new vista, a new vision and revolutionize our lives in scores of ways, one most important and significant aspect that the apostle Paul develops in his letters is the place and destiny of man in the economy of God. That comes in with a seeing of Jesus our Lord.

We know that the life of the apostle Paul was overturned totally by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord. Right there on the Damascus Road, he said, ‘Who art Thou, Lord?’ ”—“I Am Jesus.” He knew it was Jesus. “Lord,” he said, “what wilt Thou have me to do?” He did not say “Jesus, what will you have me to do” but addressed Him as Lord. This was the very beginning of a transition from knowing Christ after the flesh to knowing Him after the Spirit. It may not work out in a similar way with all of us but there is little doubt that a revelation of the Son is the most needy aspect of our spiritual lives.

In later years the apostle Paul was able to truthfully say, “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?”—“It pleased God to reveal His Son in me”; and when He revealed His Son in me, this is what I began to see. That is what the apostle is saying: “My eyes were opened to see the place and the destiny of man in the economy of God.”

This is where we all have to begin; firstly the seeing of Jesus our Lord or God revealing His Son in us, illuminating, unveiling, the place and destiny of man in the Divine Economy. All that the apostle Paul wrote comes out of that seeing of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see this very clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:
“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:45-54).
Paul, from the beginning in his first Letter to the Corinthians, chapter fifteen, takes up man from his inception. He says, “The first man, Adam.” He starts with man; it goes right back to the beginning of humanity, mankind, and he follows right through until he reaches the point of man glorified. How marvelous that chapter is! It staggers the imagination and one asks in wonderment, “How did any mortal man know that?” This is an amazing unveiling of the destiny of man in the economy of God. It could only be because he had seen Jesus Christ. That is the only answer.

The New Man in Christ

1 Corinthians 15:44-49 (Amplified Bible): It is sown a natural (physical) body; it is raised a supernatural (a spiritual) body. [As surely as] there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. (45) Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life]. [Gen. 2:7.] (46) But it is not the spiritual life which came first, but the physical and then the spiritual. (47) The first man [was] from out of earth, made of dust (earthly-minded); the second Man [is] the Lord from out of heaven. [Gen. 2:7.] (48) Now those who are made of the dust are like him who was first made of the dust (earthly-minded); and as is [the Man] from heaven, so also [are those] who are of heaven (heavenly-minded). (49) And just as we have borne the image [of the man] of dust, so shall we and so let us also bear the image [of the Man] of heaven.

Here Paul describes something of the nature of this Heavenly Body, this Heavenly physical Body, this glorified Manhood. Paul takes up manhood first in Adam, and then by the Cross he smites that race in Adam, discredits it, rejects it, and puts it aside, and starts with the New Man, “The last Adam”: “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation,”—the old humanity past, all is New. We have the whole history of man in this letter, right from his inception in the heart of God, his inception in the creation of the first Adam and his rejection in this letter; and then we have man created in the New Man, Christ.
Oh, what a Man this is in glory. In this we groan! But what is the groaning about? Oh, it is for that for which I was created; which God meant for me. In this we groan waiting, “waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body,” the putting on of our New Man. “When this corruptible will have put on incorruption.” My, do you not groan for that? Incorruption, this mortal dying “will have put on immortality,” eternally living. Now how did Paul get all that? “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” “It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.”

God has said, to this darkened humanity, ‘Let light be’; and the apostle Paul says that —in that Light—he saw His Son and in His Son he saw all that God intended and intends for mankind”—man’s destiny in the economy of God. All that is in chapter fifteen, and Paul tells us out of this seeing that the world to come is going to be entirely subjected to this Man and this Humanity.
But we see Jesus, we see Jesus the Representative Man of this New Humanity, the Inclusive Man, the Last Adam of this Humanity, we see Him crowned with glory and honor. That is the destiny of man in the intention of God. That is what Paul is saying here by the Spirit.

God Will Not Give Up On Man

Paul shows us in these letters to the Corinthians and by his influence, at least, in the Letter to the Hebrews, he shows us God’s intense interest in man and God’s infinite patience and perseverance and pains with man through history. God never, never wiped out any mankind until it had finally gone beyond the point of no return where mankind said, “We will not, we will not,” finally “We will not”—that was Noah’s day. Noah—a preacher of righteousness for 120 years, and the effect in them was: “We will not.” So God said, “The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” God never did anything like that until the cup of iniquity was full to overflowing, and there was no hope because of man’s settled determination not to have the revealed will of God.

Apart from that, look at the infinite pains and patience and perseverance of God. Oh, how marvelous is God in His Sovereignty. God seems to have chosen the Jewish race because it was going to extend Him to the fulness of His patience; and it did. God is marvelous in His Sovereignty, He does things for no other purpose than just to show what mercy He has. As it is written: “God hath chosen the foolish things... the weak things... the ignoble things... that are not.” We see what patience, what long-suffering, what pains, what perseverance is shown by the apostle on the part of God with mankind because God has set such store by this kind of creation; and if God should never have a humanity like that at the end, then God is defeated utterly and He is not God, the God of the Bible. He must—He must, and He will have a humanity that His heart is set upon.

Moreover, the apostle shows here by the Spirit, that all God’s dealings with His Own children (and the terms are family terms: His Own children, His Own family) he shows that all God’s dealings with His Own children and family had this end in view—the transition unto the glory, bringing many sons to glory, getting many sons to glory. But we must link with that: “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked or reproved of Him. Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. He scourgeth every son that He places by Him.” That wonderful chapter in Hebrews 12 about God’s dealings with His children, His family, showing that “no chastening (child-training) for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous”—for the present, grievous.

There is an “afterward”; and it is that “afterward” that God is working toward in His dealings with us, difficult as they may be. Oh!! God is not against us when we are having a hard time. The devil says He is. Have a bad time, and there is at once a little demon at your ear accusing God, maligning God, trying to get a twist in your mind that questions God, trying to get you right back into the garden again, “Hath God said?” trying to get you onto the old Adam ground again.

Yes there is an “afterward” and may the Lord enable us to see that afterward given at the end of One Corinthians, chapter fifteen
(1 Corinthians 15:57): But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

All His dealings with us are governed by this great destiny for which He has made us and called us.

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