“All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you” (John 16:15).
Our life in Christ is to be a never-ending experience of maturation in Him, of seeing Him, of living in Him, of knowing Him, of deepening friendship, of deepening and heightened joy, of experiencing and manifesting His Cross, and of being Christ to others. (See 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Rom. 12:1 – 2; 1 John 3:1 – 3; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:9 – 13).
This is NOT a self-improvement project, this is not about us, it is about Jesus and our Father, it is about being faithful to them and to one another, it is about manifesting Jesus Christ to the world and the cosmos – it is about moving from childhood to adolescence and young adulthood, to becoming fathers and mothers in Christ (1 John 2:12 – 14). It is about being placed, in Christ, as sons of the Living God and learning to live as sons and daughters in the Son.
O dear friends, if Jesus had a maturation process in the Incarnation, why can’t we see that our Father is calling us into the same process of sonship? “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Heb. 5:8 – 9).
No wonder Paul writes, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:10 – 12).
Consider what Jesus says to the Father, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one” (John 17:22). The Father gives Jesus glory, and Jesus passes that very same glory onto, and into, us.
The glory of the Son, which the Holy Spirit bestows on us, increases as we are transformed into the image of the Firstborn (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18) until that special Day unfolds which Paul writes of in 2 Thessalonians, “When He [Jesus] comes to be glorified in His saints…so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Th. 1:10, 12).
Paul also speaks of the glory that Jesus gives us in Romans Chapter 8:
8:17, “that we may also be glorified in Him.”
8:18, “the glory that is to be revealed in us.”
8:21, “the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
8:30, “and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
There is a sense, if we can receive it, that when Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,” (John 17:1) that Jesus prays this not only for Himself, the Head of the Body, but for the entire Body. That is, He prays this not only for Himself as the Only Begotten Son of God, but also for the corporate Son of God, for the One New Man of which Jesus Christ is the Head. (This may take a while to ponder, but don’t give up on it!)
And so we read in Romans 8:16 – 18:
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”
Peters writes that our “inheritance is imperishable and undefiled, that it will not fade away, and that it is reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).
In Revelation 21:7, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”
The term “joint heir” is important, for it means that we inherit and share in 100% of the inheritance together with Jesus Christ and with one another. There is no “mine” in heaven, there is no personal property in heaven, there is no individual title to land (if you will) in our joint inheritance – as joint heirs we share all there is in Jesus Christ, as He shares all there is in the Father. “All things that the Father has are Mine,” Jesus says, and in turn we see that all that Jesus has is ours in Him.
We are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” What greater inheritance could there possibly be than to inherit an eternal relationship with God and Christ? What more could we desire than that the Holy Spirit disclose to us more about Jesus and the Father? Do we not want to see and experience more of Jesus? Do we not want to see more of Jesus and His glory in one another? Do we not want to see others come to know our wonderful Lord and Savior?
While the “what is to come” of John 16:13 does indeed include the trajectories of the world and the Kingdom, as evidenced in passages such as 2 Peter Chapter 3, 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2, and Revelation, the center of gravity and focus of these passages is Jesus Christ – they are meant to reveal Jesus Christ to us and not to appeal to our curiosity. The core of “what is to come” is Jesus Christ and our relationship in Him, it is our ever expanding and deepening koinonia in Him and with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit, and with one another.
Hence we have passages such as Ephesians 3:14 – 19, so that we might be “filled up to all the fullness of God.”
What matters about today and tomorrow is our transformation into the image of the Firstborn Son (Rom. 8:29), our growing up into Him who is the Head (Eph. 4:15), so that Christ might be revealed in us in order that creation may be delivered from the bondage of corruption (Rom. 8:20 – 22). The trajectory of the world and its powers is judgment (Daniel Chapter 2), the trajectory of the Kingdom is Jesus Christ, the Stone of Daniel Chapter 2. How foolish we are to take our cues from the world’s news and headlines! We have a far greater storyline than anything the world offers – it is the glory of the Son, the glory of the Firstborn and His many brothers and sisters. Our Father is indeed “bringing many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10).
In our next reflection, the Lord willing, we’ll look at one for the most misunderstood terms and concepts in the Bible, the word “adoption,” and we’ll hopefully see how this informs what we’ve been pondering.
More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show;
More of His saving fulness see,
More of His love who died for me.
More, more about Jesus,
More, more about Jesus;
More of His saving fulness see,
More of His love who died for me.
2
More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern;
Spirit of God my teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me.
3
More about Jesus; in His Word,
Holding communion with my Lord;
Hearing His voice in every line,
Making each faithful saying mine.
4
More about Jesus; on His throne,
Riches in glory all His own;
More of His kingdom’s sure increase;
More of His coming, Prince of Peace.
By Eliza Hewitt
