Ernest C. Seddon, Ph.D., Th.D., D.R.E.

Emmanuel Baptist University 

 

The Nature of God

Eternal security is based in the nature of God.  It is the nature of God that determines His creative and redemptive activities.  Much discussion has been undertaken regarding the how and when of these activities.  Some of the discussion is valuable, some less so, and some totally irrelevant.  However, with reference to eternal security and the perseverance of the saints, the how and when of God’s activity is of considerably less importance than the ‘why’.

Why did God create?  Why does God redeem?

The answer to the questions surely lies in who and what God is.  If God is merely an impersonal force, as for example the ‘Force’ in  ‘Star Wars," or Aristotle’s prime mover there can be no real purpose in creation and no effective redemption, or need for it, as humanity is merely progressing along an evolutionary path of self-improvement.

The theological implications of such a position are enormous and can lead to deism on the one hand, or atheism on the other.  For the theistic evolutionist the problem is less serious, but the necessity of redemption must be explained by some glitch in the ‘progression’ of evolution, or by including redemption as part of the evolutionary process.  Answers to the questions “Why did God create?” and “Why did and does God redeem?” lie not in the realm of speculative or theoretical theology, but in the nature of God Himself as revealed in Holy Scripture.  In Genesis 1:26 we read of God determining to create in His own image.  This is crucial for our understanding of eternal security and the perseverance of the saints as the Lord’s inheritance.

First, we ask ourselves, “What is the nature of God?’  “What is the image of God in which man is created?”  There are those who expound the position that God being a trinity man is also a trinity, having body, soul or mind and spirit, and it is in this that the image of God resides.  However, there may be a clearer way of expressing the image of God from a scriptural perspective.  God has character.  The scripture tells us quite clearly that God says that He is holy Ezekiel 39:7.  The character of God is holy, but in terms of the nature of God, in one sense, the holiness of His character is secondary to the fact that God has character.

Second God has personality, and we recall that He expresses Himself as I am Exodus 3:14   This is also significant.  Jesus, Himself, expresses this same concept when He says in “Before Abraham was, I am.  John 8:58 Jesus’ pre-existence is not a religious idea, Scripture clearly indicates that He was aware of His pre-human birth existence in the Godhead.  In John 17:5 He says “O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself,  with the glory I had with You before the world was”.  

The third aspect of God’s nature is intelligent reason.  In John 1:1 we read In the beginning was the  ‘Logos’ λoγoσ which also carries the connotation of ‘reason’ or ‘rationale’.  In Isaiah 1:18 God says to His people Come now, let us reason together - Intelligent reason.  Thus God has character, personality and intelligent reason.  God is God, He is.  It is this that makes man^[1] different from the other aspects of creation.

In the Image of God

An animal may indeed have character, in the sense that an animal can be good or bad.  An animal can have definite personality traits.  However, when it comes to reason, although  at times  an animal may appear to reason things out, this is at the most an instinct.  It is  instinctive reason, not intelligent reason, at least in the sense that God has intelligence and those made in His image have the same characteristics.  Mankind has character, and in creation it was intended to be as the character of God.  In the Genesis account of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were holy.  Although this is not specifically stated, there is no scriptural evidence that until the fall they were anything other than in the perfect image of God.  There is no question that mankind has personality, in fact, many differing personalities.  The moral qualities of character and personality are secondary to the fact that they have an intelligent reason which is the third characteristic.  Only mankind reasons intelligently and logically.  In this sense, they are created in the image of God.  They are created as character, person and reason.

To say that man no longer is in the image of God is not to adhere strictly to what is being said in scripture.  The Scripture does not say that man loses his character, his personality, his intelligent reason.  As a result of the fall, these have suffered change.  The character, instead of being holy, has become corrupted.  The personality instead of being settled in a relationship with God, as was that of Adam and Eve, has become confused, and in which God is almost, it appears in many cases, as optional extra.  Man’s rationale or reason has undergone a further breakdown (see Jeremiah 17:9).

These changes necessitated action on behalf of God who is holy, and His holiness does not permit Him to stand idly by and watch the downfall of His creation.

The Fall and its Consequences

In Genesis 1:9; 1:24 we have the account of God’s act of creation, in which we read that God saw that it was good.  This may be construed to indicate that in the process of creation God paused to consider what He was doing, and making sure that it was the way that He wanted it.  At the end of this same chapter, Genesis 1:31, it is stated that it was very good.  This is not the place to discuss the various theories of creation, it is sufficient for our purpose simply to acknowledge that God created, and that which He created was very good, with the obvious implication that it was perfect.  Into this creation God places man and woman, and places them into a perfect location in perfect innocence.  It is important to remember that they are made in the image of God, and it is this that is the impetus for the fall.  Adam and Eve have character, personality and intelligent reason.  Up to the point of the fall that reason had been exercised toward the fulfilling of that for which God had created them.  However, when the serpent approaches them, he approaches them to reason from a different perspective - that of using their intelligence to make decisions based upon available evidence.  He begins his temptation by very subtly twisting the element of truth.  He asks, Has God said?  Genesis 3:1 with the obvious implication that the expected answer is not a desirable one.  Whatever the fruit on the tree of knowledge of good and evil was is immaterial.  The eating of the fruit in itself did not change the situation, the fruit was not in anyway poisonous.  It was the act of choosing to eat that caused the problem, because in that choice they became aware that knowledge has two dimensions.  For every positive there is a negative.  This is the nature of sin.  Sin, in one sense, has less to do with what we do than with what we are.  The Greek term for sin hamartia‘αμαρτια (the most often used word for sin in the New Testament) literally means to miss the mark ^[2] which implies less than the best, or acceptance of second best.  For example, the object in archery is to hit the bull’s eye, anything less is second best or hamartia.  This is equally true in the spiritual realm.  That which God gives is the ‘best’ Adam and Eve in falling for the fallacious reasoning of the serpent concluded that God had not given them the best, and that what they had was not entirely what they wanted, so they settled for second best, or hamartia.  Instead of a situation in which there was an unfettered relation with God, in which there was a complete oneness and unity with God, there is now a broken relationship.  As God walks in the garden, they hide from Him.  Why?  Because there were naked and ashamed.  Scripture does not enlighten us on the nature of that shame, however there is a number of possibilities.  One, they could have been ashamed because they realized that they had turned away from their loving heavenly Father and God, and had acted shamefully toward Him.  On the other hand, there could have been the shame of being seen by each other as naked.  Another possibility is the shame of actually looking at another naked person.  It would seem from this account that the first awareness of sin was a sexual one, and of course, we know that this is still one of the primary avenues that the enemy uses to cause people to fail and fall.  Whatever the implications of the statement regarding dying as a result of the eating of the fruit may be, and a number of theories has been put forward regarding this, the real implication seems to have been the death of the relationship with God.  Genesis further indicates God moving about in the Garden with Adam and Eve, and however one interprets this, literally or metaphorically, the meaning surely is obvious, that there was a relationship of very close and intimate nature between God and His creation.  The breaking of this relationship affected not just the human element of creation, but as Romans 8:19-23 indicates, the whole of creation.  This, is subject matter for a different study, the relationship of mankind to creation itself, suffice to say that the disobedience of the primal pair brought about a catastrophic consequence for the whole of creation and subsequent mankind.

The questions are quite frequently asked Why did God create?  Why did God need to create?  Of course, it is true that God is completely and totally self-sufficient.  However, as we read in 1 John 4:16  God is love, and love is not a passive emotion, it is a creative force for good, for blessing.  Thus, as God is love, it seems logical that He would need to express that aspect of His character and nature, Genesis 3:11, in creating that which He could love.  Love is not selfish, or self centered, it is primarily out going, and although the psychologists frequently tell us that each person has a need to be loved, the need to be loved is most adequately met by being loving.  As one loves, one realized that one is loved.  So it is that God being love must have that which He can love, hence, all of creation but specifically those whom He made in His own image.

The next question is Once that image was broken and marred, does God cease to love?  Of course the answer the very, very clear.  No!  God does not cease to love, because love is not what God does, love is what God is.  To say that God would cease to love is to say that God, in a very real sense, would cease to be, and that is totally impossible.  God is love, and everything that God does is an act of love because that is His character, nature, His very being.  Therefore, since the consequence of the fall was the death or breaking of the intimate personal relationship between God and His creation, and since God is love, the implications are that God must first of all react in love, and secondly determine what He will do.  His reaction is seen in Genesis 3:11, where we read  Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?  This is frequently taken as a word of condemnation.  I would suggest that it is more a word of anguish, a cry from the heart of God - have you eaten?  Have you done this thing?  Do you know what the consequences are?  Because the consequences were inevitable.  God speaking in anguish because of what Adam and Eve had done.  They do not yet know the outcome, but God does.  God, who is love, surely cannot react with anger or indifference over such a tragedy at the very beginning.

We see a similar reaction from the Lord Jesus outside Jerusalem.  Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often have I longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing Matthew 23:37.  We often hear of the wrath of God, not often of the anguish of God, and I would suggest that the action of God to the fall was not one of anger, but one of heart wrenching anguish and sorrow.  Which of course necessitated action; God being love had to act when that which He loved had fallen.  Thus, we read God commends His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us Romans 5:8 or as the prophet Isaiah said many hundreds of years earlier It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief; when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin Isaiah 53:10.  Here is the action of love.  God reacts to man’s rejection of  Him, (whether knowingly or deceived), by literally loving him to death, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ Romans 5:8.

It is important to remember, however, that the love of God is an unchanging love as God Himself  is unchanging.  As we read "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever” Hebrews 13:8.  So also the love of God is an unchanging love, and He has said that He has loved with an everlasting love Jeremiah 31:3.  It is also important to remember that the Lord Jesus is spoken of in Revelation as the Lamb that was slain from before the foundation of the world Revelation 13:8.  The implication of these scriptures is that not only did God love enough to die for us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, but there is a sense in which this in an ongoing condition.  This does not mean as some have suggested in the Roman Mass for instance, with the doctrine of Transubstantiation that Christ is being sacrificed again, Hebrews clearly indicates otherwise, when it speaks of Him having offered one sacrifice for sin When this priest (The Lord Jesus [parenthesis mine ECS]) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sin, he sat down at the right hand of God Hebrews 10:12 (New International Version).  The meaning here, surely, is that of the ongoing nature of that sacrifice, not the on going act.  Jesus, God with us, is unchanging Hebrews 13:8 and His love is an everlasting love Jeremiah 31:3, and His love centered at one point in history around the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, for sinners Romans 5:8, and is still centered around His beloved ones.  However, it is incomplete without the resurrection and the ascension.  The love of God is not centered in the death of Christ alone, but in the glory of the resurrection which means that we have a living risen Savior and also the wonder of the ascension in which we have the Lord at the right hand of God making intercession for us.  See Hebrews 7:25.  This indicates, surely, that the believer is still, and eternally will be, the focus of God’s redeeming love and grace.  As C.H. Spurgeon said “God foresaw all the sins you would ever have: It was all present to His sacred mind, and yet He loved you and loves you still” or as it is expressed in the Psalms Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not make void from Him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail Psalm 89: 32-33.  The unchangeableness of God is a significant factor in the whole subject of the security, perseverance of the Saints, and their being seen as His inheritance.  As the Psalmist says from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Psalm 90:2 and there is no change in Him.  He never changes in His being, His character, His personality.  He is, was, and always will be, as He has ever been.  Unlike the teaching of some religious groups, He cannot improve because He is perfect, and being perfect He cannot change for the worse, and so He says I am that I am Exodus 3:14.  Nothing external to Himself can change Him, and it is in this that the eternal security of His people lies.  Malachi 3:6 says I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.  The Apostle James says that He is the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning James 1:17.  It is this unchangeableness of God that is our assurance.  It is as if we are standing upon a mountain top as the floods of destruction roil beneath us, safe upon the rock, which is the Rock of our Salvation.

Another aspect of the reaction of God to the fall, which is found in the very nature of God, is that God, in Genesis 1:26 speaking of Himself says Let us make man in our own image.  In Isaiah we read these words, God saying I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass Isaiah 46:11.  In Numbers 23:19 God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man, that He should repent.  Again, this takes us back to the unchangeableness of God who said let us make man in our own image, the obvious conclusion, as God does not change, is that He is also presently making man into His image; this is the continuing work of sanctification.  God is still working at His work of creation (although as this is under the framework of the new birth, this is re-creation) but this is God’s work, He said I will bring it to pass, I have had a purpose, I have purposed to make man in My own image and I will do it.  See Isaiah 46:11.  Once again here is the rock upon which we are standing.  The rock of God’s continuing work of salvation, justification, and sanctification and eventually the glorification of His own.  It is this immutability of the purpose of God that we see in the prophet Jeremiah where we read I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn from them, to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from Me Jeremiah 32:40.  Here God is assuring us that there is no change in His purpose for us, which is to create us, or re-create us into His image.  There is no change in this, and in the process of doing this He creates in us that awe and reverence, for Him, so that we will not depart from, or leave, Him.  This is confirmed in Hebrews 8:10 I will put my laws into their minds  and write them upon their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to Me a people.  Further in Isaiah we read For the mountain shall depart the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee Isaiah 54:10.  It would be most remiss of us as we consider the answer of God to the fall if we did not look briefly at what Peter describes as Exceeding great and precious promises 2 Peter 1:4.  The promises God has made to His people which reflect upon the nature of their salvation - their full salvation.  Promises which are given to us while we are sinful without any side conditions whatsoever, except that we recognize that God will be the God of His people.  See Jeremiah 24:7, 31:33, and Ezekiel 11:20.  He is our God with all that  means in terms of His relationship with us.  For example: being our God, He has become Our Peace Ephesians 2:14.  Further God gave Himself for the church that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water, by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church Ephesians 5:25-26.  This is a promise from God, the purpose of God  for His people.  God is in a covenant relationship with His people, and further, according to His divine power has given to us all that pertain to life and godliness 2 Peter 1:3.  It is God’s promise that we have available to us everything that we need to be His inheritance, living in Godliness.  This is confirmed in 1 Corinthians 1:30 in which our Lord Jesus Christ is made unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.  He is made unto us, that is, that in Him we possess all that we need to live as the children of God, victorious lives to the honor of God.  But, continuing further, we also read For the Lord loves judgment and forsakes not His saints, they are preserved for ever Psalm 37:28.  Yet again, They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion which cannot be moved, but abides forever.  As the mountains are round Jerusalem, so the Lord is round His people from henceforth even forever Psalm 125:1-2.  He shall confirm you to the end 1 Corinthians 1:8.  I will never leave you or forsake you Hebrews 13:5.  And so, these promises speak to us today, because of the invariable character of God.

At this point I want to return briefly to two matters which are of major significance in the whole framework of our subject, that is the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.  Paul asks a question Who is he that condemns and then in response to that question he makes the statement it is Christ that died Romans 8:34.  The significance of this, is that the death of Christ, is both a substitutionary and an atoning death.  For the transgressions of my people was He stricken Isaiah 53:8.  Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God 1 Peter 3:18.  On the cross Christ made a full and perfect sacrifice for sins of all those whom the Father gave to Him.  In His death the Lord Jesus Christ made full reparation to God’s law for sin and since the believers’ sins were atoned for on the cross there cannot be any condemnation.  And if there is nothing to condemn him, how can that one then possibly have any eternity ahead, other than in the glorious and eternal presence of God?

We can never adequately express magnificence of the atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ.  To quote C.S. Spurgeon “When I think of my sin it seems impossible that any atonement should ever be adequate: But when I think of Christ’s death it seems impossible that any sin should ever need such an atonement as that.  There is in the death of Christ enough and more than enough.  There is not only a sea in which to drown our sins, but the very tops of the mountains of our guilt are covered.”  Thus it is that we read in Hebrews 7:25 that He is able to save them to the uttermost, who come to God by Him.  Everything that could cause separation between God and His people has been removed by the death of Christ.  He has taken away the guilt of sin, and obtained eternal redemption, see Hebrews 9:12.  God tells us Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Hebrews 10:17.  The death of Christ is of incredible significance in the whole matter of the perseverance of the Saints, because it is sin that causes the ‘saint’ to fall away from walking in the pathway of the Lord.  However, because of the death of Christ Paul reminds us that sin shall not have dominion over you Romans 6:14.  Since we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit himself, the third person of the Divine Trinity, sin cannot be other than defeated.  The second matter we turn to before we continue with our subject is the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is incredible in some ways that many people place more emphasis upon the cross of Christ than upon the empty tomb and the resurrection of Christ, forgetting what the scripture says in 1 Corinthians 15:17 if Christ is not raised from the dead, your faith is in vain; you are still in your sins.  The resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the culmination of God’s work of salvation in a temporal sense.  We are reconciled to God by His death, but we are saved by His life Romans 5:10.  The power of Christ would not  have been evidenced and would not have been victorious over sin, if death had conquered Him, if He had remained a prisoner of the grave.  But in His resurrection is His victory, and thus He is declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead Romans 1:4.  Yet again for to this end Christ died and rose and revived that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living Romans 14:9.  The sacrificial death of Christ was completed on the cross.  It was the payment of the debt of sin, and as someone has said “His resurrection was God’s receipt for the same”  God’s public acknowledgment that the bonds of sin had been broken, and that in the eyes of God His people are now justified, that is, declared righteous.  We must never underestimate the significance of the resurrection, it might almost be said that without Easter Day, Good Friday would have been an exercise in sacrificial futility.  The further significance of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is expressed by the Apostle Peter when he says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 1 Peter 1:3.   Because Christ is alive we shall live also.  However, closely connected with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the ascension of the Lord.  Paul in Romans 8:34 writes these words who is even at the right hand of God.  Quite often this last part of the verse is not considered.  Yet as Pink has pointed out ^[3] this brief sentence is one that guarantees the safety and perpetuity of the Church.  Remember in Philippians chapter 2 Paul speaking of the Lord Jesus says wherefore God has highly exalted Him, and given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.  (Philippians 2:5) Christ is seated in glorious splendor at the right hand of God.  This is the one who is our righteousness, sanctification, justification, redemption, see 1 Corinthians 1:30 but who is also the one to whom we shall be likened when we shall see Him we know that when He appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is 1 John 3:2.  The place that the Lord Jesus occupies in presence of God is at the right hand of the majesty on high Hebrews 1:2.  The right hand being the place of supreme authority and power, Thy right hand O Lord, is become glorious in power Exodus 15:6 viz.  See Ephesians 1:20-23.  The Lord Jesus is seated at the right hand of God in the place of supreme authority and power, and as the Apostle John says We shall be like Him 1 John 3:2.  That, of course, does not mean that we shall be sitting at the right hand of God occupying the place of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it indicates the glory and the majesty that He has that we are destined to share.  Being at the right hand of God is the place of blessing, as we read At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore Psalm 16:11.  Therefore, the destiny that awaits us in Christ, is the destiny of the glory and majesty of God.  We must remember that in this position that Christ occupies there is a further qualification Who also makes intercession for us Romans 8.34.  Here we have Christ who died, who paid the full penalty for sin, Christ who is risen and in whose resurrection there is salvation, Christ who is ascended and who is seated at the right hand of God where there is all blessedness and pleasure for evermore, and Christ who is making intercession for His people.  It is significant surely, that Jesus  is occupied in all the glory of heaven, with the well-being of His people.  This is expressed in a different context in Paul’s letter to the Philippians 1:6 He who has begun a good work in you, will finish it.  This of course refers to full spectrum of the work of salvation.  From the beginning in imparting spiritual renewal to the one who is dead in trespasses and sins, and then through the person of His Holy Spirit of whom He said I will pray the Father and He will give you another comforter that He may abide with you for ever John 14:16, who continues the work of sanctification producing the fruit of  the Spirit, Galatians 5:22 working within the believer until that which is spoken of by Paul is eventually realized,  the conformation to the image of Christ Romans 8:29 (see also 1 John 3:2).

This is further confirmed in the letter to the Ephesians Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption Ephesians 4:23.  We have then this continuing work arising out the nature of God, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, that is inexorably moving the believer along the pathway of Christian growth and development to the eventual point in the economy of God in which the likeness to Christ is fully formed.  All this is the work of God, it is not the work of the believer.  While it is true that the scripture says Work out you own salvation Philippians 2:12 the evidence of scripture is that salvation is not a matter of work, as Paul expresses it by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God.  Not of works lest anyone should boast Ephesians 2:9.  The whole of, our salvation and security, rests upon the integrity, the immutability and character of God.  Seeing that the scripture affirms very clearly that God is not a man that He should lie Numbers 23:19, and that Jesus is the truth John 14:6 we must come to one of two conclusions.  Either we must affirm that God is truth, and that our salvation, sanctification and glorification are in His hands, and thus live accordingly as people who are positionally redeemed, sanctified and glorified, and practically in the process of being redeemed, sanctified and glorified, whose manner and mode of life are governed by these.  Or, alternatively, we must say that God is a liar, that Jesus is not the truth, and thereby deny the very core of God’s self-revelation in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Which is of course, the centre piece of our eternal Hope.

In the account of creation, it is necessary to remember two basic facts.  

A.   That "God Created man in His own image; ... male and female He created them" Genesis 1:27

B.   That God told them “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth...” Genesis 1:28 

These two facts are essential to the understanding of the believer as the inheritance of God.  As previously noted 1 John 4:16 indicates that God is love   αγαπη and being αγαπη is therefore creative.  God has created being who are ‘spiritual’ (the host of heaven) and beings who are ‘spiritual’ and ‘physical’, that is with the characteristics that are both ‘heavenly’ and ‘earthly’.  Beings with the ability to ‘walk with God’ and further to reproduce according to the directive of God.  However, it was the events of the temptation and fall which brought about the necessity for God Himself to enter into that ‘spiritual’ and ‘physical’ experience which is man’s, in order that that which was lost, or marred, in the fall, might be restored.  That the intimacy that existed in the garden of Eden, and which was not indicated to be a temporary situation, might be the constant experience of the believer.  The scripture tells us that He shall see His seed Isaiah 53:10.  Thus we see that the inheritance of God, is the company of those who by grace, through faith, have committed themselves to Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord.

This is continued in the words of God to be fruitful and multiply.    The inheritance of God, is not something designated in a last will and testament, it is the on going fruit of salvation manifested in and through the Body of Christ, faithful believers of all ages and nations.

Incredible as it may seem, there is an actual sense in which the inheritance of God, is partially dependent upon the faithfulness and obedience of believers.  With faithful obedience to the Lord’s command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel Mark 16:15, the inheritance of God, expands and grows to the joy and glory of God Himself.

This is the whole purpose of God’s creative and redemptive activity.  That He should be honored and glorified, and receive an inheritance from His creation of those whose created image has been restored 2 Corinthians 5:17, and who are thereby once more in unrestricted relationship.  From the days of Creation God has been at work.  First the prophets, then the Lord Jesus Christ, now the Body of believers moving toward that great day - and He will complete that work.  As scripture says He who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it Philippians 1:6.  The day is coming when all things are consummated, when sin is no more, and the glory of the Lord fills the earth and the heaven.  There will be a great and glorious day when the seed of the Lord will be presented to the Father, a glorious  inheritance, without blemish or wrinkle, holy and blameless Ephesians 5:17.

Footnotes