Our Hope of Glory Realized

I. God’s incredible plan:

A. Was for God to come to earth so people could see and experience what He was like.

B. He could not do this spiritually, but physically – as a man among men and actually live among human beings as one of them.

C. He started this process with Abraham, when He told him, “I am going to bless you, and make you a blessing, and through your seed all the families of the earth are going to be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

D. Ultimately over time (as shown in the Old Testament), God was to come to one Person (know as the Messiah, The Anointed One), Who would be the Seed through Whom all the families of earth could be blessed.

E. Finally, Mary of Nazareth was chosen; she consented; and God’s Spirit touched her body, and Jesus was conceived through the Virgin Birth “in the fullness of time” when everything was ready (Hebrews 10:5).

F. Thus, the fetus of Jesus was both literally and physically God and man.

G. Mary’s child was going to be both fully God and fully human – the Incarnation – the Rescuer of man out of darkness (John 1:5).

H. Jesus thus had a spirit, soul, and body as we do, but His Spirit was always in fellowship with God from within and from the time of His birth.

I. Only later, when He was thirty was He baptized in the Holy Spirit by which the power could be released from within (Luke 3:22; 4:1, et al.), and He could go about “doing good” (Acts 10:38).

J. Satan, the governor of this world since the Fall, stuck back of course, stirring up trouble against Jesus and finally having Him killed as a rabble-rouser.

K. Jesus allowed this and went to His death as the “Lamb of God” like a scapegoat for our sin, even experiencing the hell of separation from God and “lead captivity captive” back to the Father’s House (cf.: 1 Peter 3:19 & amp; Ephesians 4:8).

L. When Jesus let Himself be killed by the dark powers infesting the world, He canceled every claim Satan had against the human race because of the terrible things they had done, and yet would do.  Thus was invoked the principle of “innocent blood shed” covering man as was Adam and Eve in the beginning (Genesis
3:21).

M. All of this was part of the plan of the Father (cf.: Genesis 3:15) as Jesus completely identified Himself with us – spirit, soul and body, thus paying our debt, else God would not be just.

N. Lastly, as a result, Satan defeated himself by bringing about Jesus’ death; but through that, the guilt of mankind from the beginning to the end of human history was cancelled for those who would receive Him.  For by His coming God would provide reconciliation with and redemption for His rebellious children.

II. The Hope Realized:

A. The first great work of the Spirit, of course, was sins forgiven, but there was more:

B. Jesus’ death on the cross made atonement (at-one-ment) possible and comes about after we confess our sins, are forgiven, and united with God.

C. After Jesus’ resurrection He was then qualified to cancel any claims Satan had against us and our sins and to open the way for us to come back into direct personal relationship with God.

D. This new kind of relationship Paul calls: “Christ in you, the hope of Glory” (Colossians 1: 27).

E. Prior to the Resurrection the Holy Spirit could only temporarily fill people from body to soul to spirit, as in the case of Elijah, Elisha, the seventy elders under Moses, King Saul, and others (as in the case of His disciples [cf.: Luke 10:1-20, et al.] before His death); but these “fillings” were only temporary.

F. With the woman at the well Jesus told her that “That the water [Holy Spirit] that I shall give shall be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).

G. Afterwards while speaking to the crowds, He amplified this by saying that “whoever believes in Me ... Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water [the Spirit] that they were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:38-39).

H. Later and before the Resurrection, to His disciples He gave them a preview of how the Spirit was to come in a new way permanently: “I will give you another Helper just like Me, Who will remain with you forever: the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive because it doesn’t see Him or know, Him, but you know Him, for He is staying with you now, and will be in you” (John 14:16,17).

I. After Jesus rose from the dead and had His glorified body, He appeared to His friends, reassured them He was not a ghost, and ate supper with them.  At that point the barrier of sin had been cleared away by His death, and Satan was now defeated by His resurrection, so now there was nothing to prevent Jesus from giving the Holy Spirit to His friends in this new and permanent way.

J. Further, God had closed the door to the human spirit so it could not be opened to the fallen spiritual world of the defeated Satan that formerly had surrounded it, that is, the psychic world; but now Jesus has come as the glorified Savior, and now God can allow people to open the door to their spirits to Jesus, the Door (John 10:9).  The darkness of the enemy can no longer come in, but now the Holy Spirit can: “Behold,” says Jesus, “I stand at the door and knock” (Revelation 3: 20).

K. The human will is still in the picture of the believer.  As such, we may open the door and invite Him in.

L. When we do, we are “born again/born from above, saved, redeemed, and have eternal life (never runs down or out) living within because the Holy Spirit is now linked to our spirit located in our “heart”.
This process is made possible because mankind originally (Genesis 1:26-27) was made up in the likeness or image of God in two ways:

     1. Our spirits are made of the same substance as God who is Spirit.

     2. We are made also like Him in character as Christ-like people having His spiritual nature.

M. Two things result from this new, permanent relationship: first, He makes our spirits alive to God so we can respond to Him; and second, His character begins to be reestablished in us as originally intended, as Paul terms it this way: we “put on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:10).  In the Greek, the word for “image” means pattern and moral and spiritual likeness.

N.  When this response occurs, His character or nature will now be able to be seen
in you out of the reservoir of His Life within you.
Another description of His character is the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23).

O. Without this “recreated spirit” within us, God could not live in you; thus, every time you would sin, the Holy Spirit would have to leave because He will not dwell where sin is.  You would have to be born of the Spirit over and over again.

P.   Fortunately, our spirits do not sin since we have been born of incorruptible life; even when our souls sin, however, God remains in that holy place within (cf.: 1 John 3:8,9; 1 Peter 1:23, 3:4; 2 Peter 1:4; Hebrews 12:23b; Psalm 32:2).

Q.  The place of this union of the Holy Spirit and your spirit is the “most Holy
Place” like a type of the Jewish Tabernacle or Temple.  It is the secret dwelling place of God, a place of:

•  rest
•  receiving God’s wisdom and truth
•  communication whereby we exchange our thoughts, needs, cares, and concerns
•  direction and guidance
•  ageless and eternal life that never expires
•  quickening whereby you may speak life to others, and
•  strength

R.  Paul tells us that this is the “mystery” hidden throughout the ages, but now
revealed to us as:      

The Anointed One (Christ) in you, the Hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27) – Hope for us, for the world, and for the future.

Note: much of the above outline was inspired from Dennis and Rita Bennett’s, Trinity of Man, chapters 10 & amplified; 11, Logos International, 1979.