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1 Corinthians
15:14-28
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If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For "God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "all things are put in subjection," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. (ESV)
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Nothing But Him
Friday of Pentecost 8
27 July 2012
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What joy those who are in the endless Sabbath seeing God face to face experience. The great blessedness that they share with God is so deep that we are tongue-tied when asked to explain what it will be like. How do we explain that which we have not yet fully experienced nor presently have the ability even to understand? It is like going to a tropical resort for the first time. The pictures you saw on the Internet don't begin to do it justice. Only when you get there and experience the resort with its tropical setting and wonderful service, do you fully understand and enjoy it. Until then there is only anticipation. When you return from the resort, you will say, "It was far more beautiful than we anticipated."
Our heavenly home is a way of living that beggars our imagination. Scripture gives us hints about it on every page, but whether we fully understand those hints is a matter of doubt. Scripture, of course, is not the problem, but our feeble minds. We won't need to be involved in labor, and yet we will be able to labor without suffering exhaustion. What our employment would be where none is necessary, we have a hard time understanding. All that we do and experience in heaven will be to the Creator's praise and honor. But what blessedness will look like, we do not know.
Whatever is enjoyed there will focus on God Himself so that He will be "all in all" (1Co 15:28). There we will see what here ought already to be the case. But our weakness and our sin leads us to make idols of those things which ought lead to God. We focus on created things to the detriment of our seeing the Creator. Every idol will come crashing down on the last day when God will both reign and rule without any rival. The things which screen our sight of Him will be destroyed. And we will be left with nothing but Him.
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Augustine of Hippo
"How great will be that blessedness, which will be tainted with no evil, will lack no good, and will afford leisure for the praises of God, who will be all in all! For I know not what other employment there can be where no weakness will slacken activity, nor any want stimulate to labor. I am admonished also by the sacred song, in which I read or hear the words, 'Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!' (Ps 84:4). All the membersand organs of the incorruptible body, which now we see to be suited to various necessary uses, will contribute to the praises of God. For in that life necessity will have no place, but full, certain, secure, everlasting blessedness. For all those parts of the bodily harmony, which are distributed through the whole body, within and without, and of which I have just been saying that they at present elude our observation, will then be discerned. And along with the other great and marvelous discoveries which will then kindle rational minds in praise of the great Maker, there will be the enjoyment of a beauty which appeals to the reason. What power of movement such bodies will possess, I have not the audacity rashly to define, as I have not the ability to conceive. Nevertheless, I will say that in any case, both in motion and at rest, they will be, as in their appearance, proper. For into that state nothing which is improper will be admitted.
"One thing is certain, the body will forthwith be wherever the spirit wills, and the spirit will choose nothing which is unbecoming either to the spirit or to the body. True honor will be there, for it will be denied to none who is worthy, nor yielded to any unworthy; neither will any unworthy person so much as sue for it, for none but the worthy will be there. True peace will be there, where no one will suffer opposition either from himself, or any other. God Himself, who is the Author of virtue, will be its reward there; because there is nothing greater or better, He has promised Himself. What else was meant by His word through the prophet, 'I will be your God, and you will be my people' (Lev 26:12), than that I will be their satisfaction, I will be all that men honorably desire: life, and health, and nourishment, and plenty, and glory, and honor, and peace, and all good things? This, too, is the right interpretation of the saying of the apostle, 'That God may be all in all' (1Co 15:28). He will be the end of our desires who will be seen without end, loved without cloy, praised without weariness. This outgoing of affection, this employment, will certainly be, like eternal life itself, common to all."
Augustine, The City of God, 22.30
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Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, in eternity you will be all in all. Set our hearts on You alone now, that then we shall see You face to face. Amen.
For all those who are traveling to enjoy the respite of vacation, that they would be kept safe in their travels
For all Lutheran church musicians, that they would extol Christ alone and He might be all in all in the new day of the church
For the Lutheran Church of Sudan, that the Lord Jesus would continue to shower His grace into the midst of trial and suffering
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Art: DÜRER, Albrecht The Adoration of the Trinity (1511)
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 © Scott R. Murray, 2012
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