What Could Be Greater Than This?
Dearly beloved of God, through the years our God has performed incredible deliverance for His people, and He is not finished.
He delivered Israel from their captivity in Egypt by dividing the Red Sea. They passed through the sea as it stood up like walls on their right hand and their left, and they walked through it on dry ground, while the Egyptian army that pursued them was destroyed as the sea collapsed on them.
What could have been greater than that deliverance?
They entered the promised land by passing through the Jordan River when it was at flood stage. God told Joshua to have the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant before them, and when their feet touched the water it would stand up on a heap.
It sure did; it stood up for some thirty miles from Adam near Zaretan down to the Salt Sea, and they walked through it on dry ground.
God gave Moses His Word, and then Joshua, they believed it; and God performed these miracles by bringing His Word to pass.
What could be greater than that? The word spread to the people living in the land where they were headed and they were terrified. Who could stand against a God like their God? What could possibly be greater than these miracles?
God sent His Son to Israel, and he gave his life for them as their Passover lamb. They killed him on the 14th of Nisan, and he was in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Then late on the weekly Sabbath, as it began to dusk toward the first day of the week (our Sunday) God raised His Son from the dead!
No one had ever been raised from the dead who died no more; he was the first begotten from the dead. What could be greater than passing from death unto life?
Forty days later Jesus Christ ascended into heaven! Christ did not enter into the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
God seated him at His right hand in the heavenlies far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church.
"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession."
What could be greater than passing into the heavens, dearly beloved?
Well, God not only raised Jesus from the dead, and set him at His right hand, He quickened us together with Christ (by grace we are saved;) and he has raised us up together with him, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
The moment we were born again and saved, we passed from death unto life.
We became the children of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. We became members of the body of Christ, filled with all in all of us. We became members of the household of God, and citizens of the heavenly realm.
Jesus Christ was the first born from the dead among many brethren – us! In Christ and by his accomplishments we are justified, and we are glorified with him as joint heirs. The Father will freely give us all things with His beloved Son.
What could be greater than this?
God gives us His Word that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we always be with the Lord!
He will transform these bodies of humiliation which are now subject to death to be like his glorious body, and we will be glorified together with him.
We will pass into the heavens as Christ did previously, and we will literally be seated in the heavenlies with him.
Israel may have passed through the sea, and later they passed through the Jordan at flood stage, but we have passed from death unto life, and we will pass into the heavens with Christ, and be seated with him.
God gave us His Word, (Romans 10:9,) we believed it, and we passed from death unto life. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us the proof that we have everlasting life; the same proof that verifies that God raised him from the dead (Acts 2:32 and 33.) We can speak in tongues!
What could be greater than that?
He has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible, reserved in heaven for us. Rejoice!
It will take our Father the ages to come to display the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
What could be greater than that? This is only the beginning; there is much more to come, dearly beloved. Rejoice forevermore!