The Lord Jesus' coming will not take place suddenly; rather, it will come gradually. In a sense, the Lord will come back from heaven; but in another sense, He will come out of us. He comes from the heavens having been glorified and comes OUT of those living Him to the saturation of their souls with His life.
Then they too will be manifested with Him in glory. For He is in them as the hope of glory.
When He fully lives Himself out of His people on earth, (at least a critical mass of them who are ready for His return) that will be the time of His coming.
In Matthew 17:1 with 16:28, His coming was His transfiguration, and His transfiguration was His glorification. When He was transfigured, He was glorified.
In this sense this is the deification of the Son of Man who had God hidden in the shell of His created humanity. Briefly on the mountain of transfiguration He gave a PREVIEW to His closest disciple where He was headed - into the permeation of even His physical body with the Shekinah glory of God hidden and concealed within Him.
For Christ to be glorified there on the mountain was for what was hidden to temorarily become manifest. When Christ, who is God, became a man, His divinity was incarnated in His humanity. He was a unique person, one possessing both divinity and humanity.
The divinity was concealed within His humanity. Outwardly, He was a man, but inwardly He was the very God. God was hidden, contained, concealed, within this man. Philppians says that in incarnation He emptied Himself not of divinity, but of the splendor of its manifestation in glory.
He appeared in the form of a man, a slave, and an obedient One willing to suffer crucifixion. In resurrection the divine glory was no longer concealed.
Yet He temporarily seemed to "unzip" Himself, so to speak, and give three close disciples a glimpse of His coming in His kingdom - a process that both He and His followers would undergo.
Glory is God manifested, God expressed. When God Himself is manifested and seen by man that is glory. The God hidden within the humanity of Jesus was the very glory. That glorious divine element was concealed within the human element of Jesus. Remember, God CRFEATED man (Gen. 1:26) The eternal Son of God incarnated into what was of the creation of God - man.
And that part needed to be brought into divinity in His resurrection.
Yet a preview He gave on the mount of transfiguration.
He called that them seeing the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
As He walked on earth, no one could see His glorious divinity. Many saw the miracles and realized that He was someone extraordinary, but prior to His transfiguration no one had ever seen the glory concealed within Him.
But He brought three of His most intimate disciples to most likely Mount Hermon,. And on that mountain Jesus temporarily transfigured before them. For the Lord Jesus to be transfigured meant that His humanity was saturated and permeated with His divinity.
But He told them this vision should not be told because it was only a preview. The full transfiguration permenantly was in His resurrection and exaltation back to the throne of God WITH the permeated humanity.
"And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commandd them, saying, Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is raised from the dead." (v.9)
The Lord's coming will not take place suddenly. His coming rather will come gradually as He saturates a critical mass of His people on earth in preparation for His physical return.
In a sense, the Lord will come back from heaven; but in another sense, He will come out of us. This will be like the joining of a circle. Part of the circle is coming from heaven and part of it is coming out of His people on earth. The event of His transfiguration on the mountain gave Peter, James, and John a foretaste to see what both He and they must go through.
The hidden Shekinah glory of God must permeate the entire being to be manifested in glorification. When Jesus Christ fully lives Himself out of us, that will be the time of His coming.
At least a critical mass must undergo this as a remnant ready like Gideon's army.
For the sake of the entire nation this remnant experienced a victory though they were a minority of only 300. I do not know the number who will be ready to be manifested with the divinity of God shinning out of them.
I know they must live Christ in a concealed way meaning they appear as other men and women until the time of the manifestation of the sons of God in glory.
We need this understanding to comprehend the meaning of Christ's temporary treansfiguration on the mountain in Matthew 17. According to Matthew 17:1 with 16:28, His coming was His transfiguration, and His transfiguration was His glorification. When He was transfigured, He was glorified.
And this we speak of a manifestation of deification in both Him and those who come through the same process. Eventually, EVERY born again human being cannot avoid
Christ was the Son of God from eternity who incarnated and became a man. His divinity was incarnated in His humanity. He was a unique person in possession of both divinity and humanity.
The divinity of the Son of God was concealed within the shell of His humanity. Outwardly, He was a man, but inwardly He was the very God. Within the created man He became was God - hidden, contained, concealed, within this man. He came in the likeness of the fallen flesh. Yet He had no sin nature. And thoughout His life sinning could not occur in Him. But He appeared as a fallen man, a typical son of Adam.
On the Mt. of Transfiguration the hidden glory of God was God manifested. God expressed Himself even visibly from the concealment. The transfiguration was nothing other than God Himself manifested and seen by man. The God hidden within the humanity of Jesus was the very glory revealed.
That glorious divine element was concealed within the human element of Jesus. For thirty so years He walked on earth and no one could see His glorious divinity. They did see the miracles and even witnessed Him walk on the sea miraculously. His disciples and other people realized that He was a unique extraordinary human being.
However before His brief moment of transfiguration no one had ever seen the glory concealed within Him. On the day He intended to show three disciples this, He brought them to a high mountain. There transfigured before three of His closest disciples. For the Son of Man to be transfigured meant that His humanity was saturated and permeated with His divinity. His glory concealing humanity was soaked with divinity. This transfiguration, and which was His glorification, was equal to His coming in His kingdom.
This we call the Son of God in His humanty manifesting visibly the glory of God concealed. And those of us who have received Him must go through the same transfiguration in the coming of Christ in His kingdom. This can be called the climas of deification but not replacing God in any way. Rather our humanity is saturated with His life and expressed and marveled at in the millennial time.
"When He comes to be glorifed in His saints and to be marveled at in all those who have believed (because our testimny to you was believed) in that day." (2 Thess. 1:10)
@Ghost-of-a-Duke
Eight consecutive posts and you cannot refute reasonably with Scripture one single sentence. And that tells your story of sowing doubt of God's word.
@sonship saidWhen you make 8 consecutive posts of deliberate obfuscation, nobody is going to read them. I certainly didn't.
@Ghost-of-a-Duke
Eight consecutive posts and you cannot refute reasonably with Scripture one single sentence. And that tells your story of sowing doubt of God's word.
@Ghost-of-a-Duke
Coming back to this subject:
I have a question for you about the Son of God saying He sanctified Himself.
That is to be made holy - sanctification.
"And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth." (John 17:19)
The Son of God was the holy God set apart in holiness from eternity past.
Why then did the Son of God say for the sake of His disciples He sanctified
Himself?
Why did the Son of God feel the need to "sanctify" Himself ?
The Son of God is absolutely holy in Himself. Yet, to set an example of sanctification
for His disciples, He STILL sanctified Himself in His way of living while He was on earth."
"And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth." (John 17:19)
He was holy from eternity yet sanctified Himself in saving us.
We saved a redeemed believers we were fallen and UNholy. And we can by His grace and operation within sanctify ourselves, following the example.
He and we who are saved by Him share in this action are are made partners along with Him in this aspect though He was divine Son of God and we are creatures of God.
In this regard we go through a process like He went through though He was holy already from eternity.
"For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers." (Hebrews 2:11)
Is it blasphemy to believe that Jesus is not ashamed to call the saved sinners who are being sanctified "brothers?"
Standing on the fact that I am a "holy brother" of the Son of God do I blaspheme?
"Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling . . . " (Heb. 3:1a)
@sonship saidUnless you quit spamming threads with multiple posts I have no interest in your questions.
@Ghost-of-a-Duke
Coming back to this subject:
I have a question for you about the Son of God saying He sanctified Himself.
That is to be made holy - sanctification.
"And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth." (John 17:19)
The Son of God was the holy God set apart in holiness from eternity past.
Why then did the Son of God say for the sake of His disciples He sanctified
Himself?
Unless you quit spamming threads with multiple posts I have no interest in your questions.
No, that is not why you have no interest in my question.
You have no interest because the pure word of God in the New Testament debunks your unbelief up one side and down the other.
You have no interest in being exposed as so badly in error about God and His full salvation.
My "spamming" is just a handy excuse.