Page 14 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption

received as a gift from Him, but He does not intend that we shall steal any fullness
from Him.

“For of Him, and through Him and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for
ever. Amen” (Rom.11:36). We find here that Christ, the Son, is the origin, the agent,
and the object of all things. Logically, then, to Him should accrue the glory. The same
idea is stated in that sublime passage setting forth the glories of God‟s Son (Col.

1:15-18). Here it is stated that “All things were created by Him, and for Him...who is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the
preeminence.” The first oratorio of the twenty-four elders was to the same purport,
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast

created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. ”
To fail of this, then, is to “come short of the glory of God.” Any thought, any
word, any act that has not as its object the preeminence and glory of Christ is a sin. It
is to be a rebel against the divine will, a thwarter of the divine purpose.

When we contemplate the nature of this future glorious Christocracy we are
impressed with the fact that it has nothing in common with the present cosmic order
but is as high above it as the heaven is high above the earth and as far from it as the

East is from the West. Nothing that is indigenous to the present order of things can
possibly have any place there. Christ tells us in His own interpretation of the Parable
of the Tares (Matt. 13:40-42) that at the consummation of the age “the Son of man
shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that

offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.” Any
veil that is drawn across the glorious face of God‟s Son, any impious hand that is
thrust across the threads of the divine purpose, is an offense, and the guilty parties will
certainly be “gathered out of His Kingdom.”

Beloved, God commands us to “Be not conformed to this world but to be
transformed by the renewing of our minds.” Identification with this present order of
things must render us ineligible for the future order. Conformity to this order can be

changed into conformity to that only by a great supernatural transformation, which the
Holy Spirit alone can accomplish in us by regeneration and maintain in us by His
indwelling. Then, being renewed in our minds, our outlook, our estimates of things,

our desires, will we be enabled to hate this present evil order which slew our Prince of
life, our Lord of glory. Then will we repudiate as foreign to ourselves this present
world-system, as it was foreign to our Lord. Then will we know that our citizenship is
in heaven, from whence we look for the Lord Christ. You will remember that He
admitted before Pilate He was a King but added that His kingdom is not of this

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