The church of today has lost it’s vision and purpose. Christ sent the 10 out preaching the gospel. And the gospel was? The Kingdom of God is at hand. And you know what? It still is. That command was never retracted. But not rightly dividing the word of truth they put off the works of Christ and appropriate the works of God now in effect saying “TODAY! If you will here His voice”. They present another day for Gods gift to us of eternal life to commence and they call it a 2nd coming.
Under gardians and tutors until appointed time, until faith comes. This is the purpose of the church. Teach faith. To teach how to trade in the temporary pictures for the invisible realities. “When that which is perfect has come, that which is in part shall be done away with. And this has nothing to do with as illusive time delay called the 2nd coming. That message brings no one “to the full stature of the Son of God”.
What they don’t understand is the concept of resurrection. They think they have to physically die. They think they have to discard the human body. It is a spirit of religion that says that man is bad. Especially people who don’t profess their God and the spelling of a name. Be it Jesus or Allah, one must see it in the terms of their faith or be condemned.
But God made Adam and Eve humans. He said they were made in His image and He said “they were good, very good. He regarded them as the pinnacle of His creation by reflecting His own image and He made them the recipients of the created order saying “go forth and have dominion over all creatures and creation. So he is.
Adam and Eve died without this death killing the body saying of the forbidden fruit “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” and they suffered a spiritual death. It is to this that humanity is restored to that order “from the beginning” in Christ to all who believe. As they distrusted and disbeleived Gods words they died? But when they return to believe they live. And in this way man is re-spirited with Gods spirit and live.
It’s that simple. No cataclysmic event needed like a 2nd coming.
Paul was confused about this. He had to break from that religious order of their day and relearn what was lost. They believed in a physical, bodily resurrection after death. It was said of His contemporaries “you are not entering the Kingdom of God and you are keeping out those who are trying to enter”. They were called “brood of vipers, sons of the devil”. They wanted to build their visual kingdom and rejected Gods ubiquitous Kingdom by doing so. Were they not scorned for adorning the shrines if the prophets? They lost their calling. All the law and the prophets were visible things teaching of the reality of Gods Kingdom immediately accessible even back then.
So learn what the resurrection is. It is “the putting off the sin of the body of flesh” which is unbelief. As Paul finally figured out in Colossians. He called it “the circumcision made without hands, the circumcision of God and not of man. And if this is true as we believe. Then resurrection is the redemption and restoration to Gods original plan of being “good, very good “. This plan was when Adam and Eve were humans like us.
Amen.