CONTINUED FROM PART I....

       Which also tells us definitively that the new creation is not when we are saved. Because we are still a fallen man that still has to overcome. And if it were not so, we would not have what Revelation 21:7 tells us. Which is “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.” But it is "the new creation" when we are restored to the glory before the fall. Which was when "the tomb became a womb", and Jesus was born into the likeness of His former glory. It’s only when we overcome the fallen nature by denying ourselves, taking up our cross and following Jesus into the resurrection and life, that we will inherit all things. Which is "the all things" of eternal life of immortality and the eternal light of the imperishable. And that then, and only then, on that day and that day alone, just as for Jesus, that God will be our God, and we shall be His son. Which is a son who is like Father like son. Which loops back all the way to this great prophetic decree in Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.”

     Which is the reason why Jesus is called the FIRSTBORN. Which was not a name reserved for Jesus before He came to earth. Because the written word of God that came after Jesus “already was” tells us in Psalm 89:27, “I also shall make Him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” The statement, I shall make him, is future tense. Jesus was already around long before the time of that saying. Which means that to make Him my firstborn comes at some time later, in the future. Also, to be “the highest of the kings of the earth” speaks of being on earth, not in heaven. Which speaks of the Jesus who came later, when He was on earth. So the name of the firstborn relates to the time when Jesus was on earth, which was when He was the first to be resurrected. Which tells us that being resurrected is when we become the new born Christian, not when we are saved. Which was His being born into the new creation of having His glory restored back to Him because by saying, “It is done”, He had finished the race. Just like if we finish the race, we too shall be able to say, it is done. And become a son or daughter after the firstborn.

     Which also explains why and what it means that He is “the firstborn of many brethren”. Romans 8:29 tells us, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” By the time Jesus became the firstborn, there were already many men of God who had walked the earth all through the Old Testament and New. There were many even before He died who were saved by Jesus. So being the firstborn does not relate to being saved. It relates to dying to the old man of fallen man, and being resurrected into the new man of the new creation. Which tells us that although we are all saved, we are not yet the new creation that God like an expectant father is waiting to be revealed before Him, so that He can publicly declare for us before all creation, “This is My son. Today, I have begotten you.” For if that were not true, then we wouldn’t read in Romans 8:19 this: “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of who? The sons of God”. If by salvation we had already revealed ourselves to all of creation as the sons of God, why would Romans 8:19 say all of creation waits eagerly for their revelation? For doesn’t God say that he who humbles himself before the hand of God, will in due time be exalted (1 Peter 5:6)? And that He makes all things beautiful “in their time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Which is the fulfilment of Isaiah 61:3, which is to restore Zion to her glory by bestowing upon her a crown of beauty for ashes. For have we not become the ashes of what once used to glow with the fire of glory?

     Which means what? It means that as with Romans 8:19, we are “a seed” waiting to become a new creation. Which tells us what? It tells us that what we do with the precious time we have in this life, determines everything! For has God not said, as long as the earth shall remain, seedtime and harvest shall not cease (Genesis 8:22). One of my all-time favourite quotes of all time is from Marcus Aurelius in "The Gladiator". For are we not all gladiators slaying the giant of our flesh? He said, “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” What we do in this life is the preparation for who we will be in the next. Which is what the purpose of discipleship is all about. The call to discipleship is the call to manifest sonship. Which shows us that the call to discipleship is both a calling out and a calling to. It’s a calling out from the depths of which we have fallen to, and a calling out to the heights of who we were first created by God to be.

     Which also tells us that the entire purpose of our lives is to bring glory to Jesus. Which is the greater purpose of discipleship. Because the word of God says that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6). If it is only through Jesus that anyone comes to the Father, then it is only Jesus who gets the glory.

     What it also tells us is that if at the end of the time, that is this time on earth, that we haven’t finished the race, that we will also not receive the prize of the upward call of God in Christ. Which means we won't receive the prize of becoming the new creation God that wills for each of us. And how do we know this? At least three scriptures tell us this.

1. Matthew 7:14. It says three things: (1) narrow is the gate and (2) difficult is the way that what? (3) that leads to life. But what? But few find it. Meaning what? That few find the life that discipleship leads to. Because why? Not everyone finishes the race. Which parallels with what we have been saying. Which is that discipleship is the difficult way that leads to the life that few find. It has a purpose. Which is the life of what? The life of those who enter the “abundant life” in Christ that John 10:10 promises. Being the fullness of life that follows after first receiving "the life" of the seed of Christ deposited at salvation. Being a scripture that shows us that there is a starting point, there is a finish, and there is a middle. Three stages for the walk of life that is the Christian before the glorified son is revealed before all of creation and his Father. Just like there are three trimesters in pregnancy before the new creation of a child is revealed before all creation and its father.