The Redemption of the Purchased Possession - Part 2

OUR PRESENT EXPERIENCE

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver

In Whom. Our salvation will never be separated from Jesus. We will never be able to experience or maintain an acceptable standing with God without Jesus ever living to make intercession for us. Whether we be here or there our association with the Lamb is what makes us pleasing to God. Everything we are and everything we do has to do with this phrase "in Whom".
     He is gathering all things together in Christ
     We have obtained an inheritance in Christ.
     We have trusted in Christ.
     We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit in Christ.

We Heard the Word of Truth. The mystery of His will is manifested through the gospel: the preaching of the good news of our salvation. That God is delivering, blessing, and rewarding men through the Man, Christ Jesus. The gospel announces that everything necessary for the fulness of joy to be realized is brought to us in Jesus. God is blessing the world through Him. The word of the truth of the gospel reveals the hidden mystery that God “spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all” and in view of this great sacrifice, “how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). The “redemption of the purchased possession” speaks of the full obtainment of “all things” that are freely given to us in Christ. The gospel both announces and reveals this; it both declares the truth and gives the understanding of these things.

The Will of God was Made Known to Us. It is God's will that has been made known to us. He is showing us, through the gospel, His intention, desire and purpose. Our salvation is progressing from us being enlightened to this truth to actively experiencing it.

The will of God is primarily concerned with what He is doing in Himself, His Christ and His Spirit. It is in accord with His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself. The will of God involves Him gathering all things together in Christ. His will includes predestinating us to obtain an inheritance through Christ. He is working all His purpose after the counsel of His own will. He is glorified in salvation! What are we to do? Trust in Jesus.

We Trusted in Jesus. We have committed our lives and our souls to the One who is able to keep us and present us before God without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We have staked the eternal condition of our souls on the fact that God is satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ and that Christ is, and will remain, one with the Father: acceptable to Him, blessed by Him and seated at His right hand. We have trusted that the blood of Christ is able to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesses. This is our present experience and our future experience will be in accord with it but better. We know in Whom we have believed and are persuaded that He is able to keep that which we have committed to Him against that day and we trust that we will be better for having done it. We will, now and always, follow the Lamb withersoever He goest, trusting in His provision of green pastures and still waters.

We Were Sealed IN Jesus WITH the Holy Spirit. We have, in Christ, “tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come” (Heb 6:4-5). We have been given an earnest, a pledge, a down payment of what we will be given in heaven. And by receiving of His fullness we have been "sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30). He has "sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” in order to establish us, anoint us and transform us into what we will be when we shed this robe of flesh. All this has been done by Jesus with the Holy Spirit and it has great utility for us to live by faith and patience. Having a treasure in an earthen vessel makes us grossly discontent with our present condition and causes us to long for a better more fitting dwelling. The Holy Spirit is our pledge that we will possess that which was purchased for us by Christ. We will receive a body that will not be a hindrance but a help to us. We will receive a body fit for heaven and a body fit to house the Holy Spirit.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:1-8)

“And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” (Romans 8:20-25)