The adoption to full sonship, our glorification.

 

Acts 1: 3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

 

Have you ever wondered that Jesus never healed a single person after resurrection? Infact there is no record of that for the forty days that he walked the Earth. I asked why? It is because his true sonship was revealed only after he rose from the grave.

 

“ He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” Rom.1:3-4).

 

When he rose, he became flesh and bones and no more flesh and blood.(Luke 24:36-44).He now had a body that defile restrictions and the force of gravity if you will though he also did vanished from the midst of people when he was to be killed.

 

But at stage of his ministry, he never healed or raised anybody from the grave or death at this stage of his life like he did to Lazarus, because has he done so, that person will still have been alive till today.

 

All the people he healed in his three and half years of ministry still died and got buried. That tells us that, that phase of his ministry wasn’t the ultimate. That was in the realm of ‘the son of David according to the flesh’.

But after resurrection, he will then only impart the incorruptible life to whatever person or object that he will raise up. Just like Peter will say “Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3: 6).What was Peter having, it was the healing power of the risen Christ that was flowing through his bones.

 

Now, for Christ he was no longer living by the limitations of the Earth realm associated with all of Adam’s race, but rather his was completely now a new creature of God, not the seed of David according to the flesh anymore

 

That beloved is the perfect example of our sonship in its fullness. Therefore we are told

Rom.8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?.

 

So what hope are we dealing with here? Look at this, talking about the work of the redemption of the Christ in us.

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory”. Eph.1: 13-14.

Again.” And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”. (Eph.4: 30)

( [He has also appropriated and acknowledged us as His by] putting His seal upon us and giving us His [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as the security deposit and guarantee [of the fulfillment of His promise]. Ampl. 2 Cor 1:22 AMP. Did you see it? Sealed to the day of redemption!.

 

Now where is the Spirit?. In our hearts!.

The phrase “And given the earnest of the Spirit” (ton arrabwna tou pneumatov). Speaks of this seal in our spirit that guarantees our acceptance with the Father God, telling us that our ways are pleasing to the lord.

But above all, the word there translate pledge actually signifies an earnest of something promised; a part of the price agreed for between a buyer and seller, It speaks of a deposit, which was to be restored when the thing promised was given. And this is very important.

 

So we can see in Eph 1:14;that the Holy Spirit being an earnest in the heart, and an earnest of the promised inheritance means a security given in hand for the fulfilment of all God’s promises relative to grace and eternal life.

 

Now what was it that was bought?

“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”. (1 Cor.6: 20). So the whole of man, that is made up of spirit, soul and Body (1Thes.5:23) was bought with the precious blood of Jesus.

 

Therefore, if the seal in our spirit is the pledge, and knowing that man is made up of spirit soul and Body, what will the full payment qualify us for? The redemption of our body of course!.

 

“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”. (Rom.8: 22-23)

 

That tells us that this body of corruption must receive another body, which is the Body of Glory, the very same Body that Jesus had after resurrection. It is called the Body of flesh and Bones and not flesh and Blood. .(Luke 24:36-44).

 

Let me now quote extensively here from the word of Apostle Paul again.

 

1 Cor.15: 37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

 

We therefore can see that all bodies are not the same. Let us not be deceived, this body of corruption is not ultimately the Body that the Father intends us to have. We have indicated earlier on that Adam had a glorified Body before the fall, and that’s the Body that we ultimately are going to have, that is truly our sonship Body. The very Body that was revealed on the mount of transfiguration.

 

So the word says.

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.( Rom.8: 24-25)

So what hope our seeing here? It is the hope of a glorified Body which is the redemption of the purchase possession. So salvation is not complete until our Bodies are redeemed into the same image as that of the lord’s when he rose from the grave. That my friend is the fullness of our sonship. What has been redeemed is our spirit, awaiting that of our Bodies.

 

Therefore “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”. 2 Cor3:17-18.

 

“All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” (Verse 18. MSG)

 

To have the patient to wait for this is a major trial of our sonship.

 

(c) 2017 – Dr. David O. Ogaga