THE SIX UNEXCELLED PRIVILEGES
– DON’T GET THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE-
GOD in His grace and mercy offers fallen humans six ordered yet concurrent and continually expanding privileges of and for salvation and growth. Privileges which bring in their train – peace and joy. The first 5 privileges involve our freedom of choice, in preparing for, hosting, and revealing the kingdom of heaven in us as an absolute prerequisite and guarantee to the 6th privilege —being in the kingdom of selfless love to come.
The first five privileges
1 God has and does reveal to us His unbounded, selfless, other-centered love. And it is our privilege to see His other-centered love – which via a reality of spiritual light – reveals the wretched reality and our evil state of self-centeredness, while drawing us to Him.
2 In seeing what is revealed in and by that light we can choose to ask forgiveness via His enabling power.
3 To accept His offer of pre-given forgiveness and thus acceptance into His presence via His covering of our past sins.
4 To invite Him into us thus renewing the image, the likeness of the Godhead in which we were created by Him, via the Holy Spirit being in us, His character virtues empowered by His other-centered, selfless love. Verily the Eternal Life, Christ in us. Both the mystery of holiness – and our only hope of glory.
5 To willingly, gladly, purposely, allow Him to shine through us where light is needed in our corner of this dark self focused kingdom.
THE last privilege is the sure RESULT of the first 5 choices;
6 To be taken forever to where unselfish other- centered love, thus peace is, and will be the unbroken totality. The kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven – kingdom of God— just where is it? People think of it as far away in distance and in time— something in the future – potentially for them—but is that truly all that the scriptures teach? Yes, Jesus did say in Jn.14 “I go to prepare a place for you….So there is a future kingdom and a location far away and many stop there with the kingdom of heaven at an arm’s length.
This kingdom of heaven, also called the kingdom of glory, has always existed — yet has been temporally veiled to allow humans here, through the process of salvation, to re-enter through the kingdom of veiled glory – actually the source of His outshining glory–His character— through the kingdom of grace. The foundational principles of other-centered, personified selfless love, revealed and graciously offered to us in the veiled brilliant panoply of His unexcelled character is a prerequisite to re-entry into the physical unveiled – future for us – kingdom of glory.
Again Christ saves us from the evil of our self-centeredness and offers us the mystery of God – the source of His glory, His character, fitting us to be saved back into God’s heavenly kingdom of glory.
Save, saved, salvation all come from the foundational meaning of past — saved from— drowning, embarrassment, from harm, from sin. And if that foundation of salvation is not appreciated experientially like Formalist & Hypocrisy in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress hopping over the side wall, or the servant in Matthew 18:21-35, the future aspect of saved to will not happen. And when we do return to our heavenly home it will be remembering the past aspect of our salvation that will cause us to throw our crowns at the feet of our Savior – Christ the King of kings.
The foundational question is not the self-centered questions, “Will I, will you be in heaven?” 0r “Am I”, or “are you saved” (used in it future tense)? But “will I, will you, have I, have you, let the spiritual part of heaven both be in and remain, thus to grow in us?” Yes, Jesus the Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, our Brother in whom God is” well pleased”.
Such a character, a likeness, is not for us to try to imitate, nor can we from our fallen state produce, but He is for us to invite in. He’s standing now at our door. And Christ- the Light, your life – daily in you, growing in you, is your guaranteed assurance of life forevermore with Him. Our freedom of choice never ends or else love would end.
There will be none in heaven who have not turned – in temporal time – from self -centeredness and opened their heart door for the Light to shine, yea the Life to come in, transforming their darkness into unexcelled light from the source of His glory – His character – the veiled in-shining and veiled out-shining beauty of that selfless love preparing us to enter the full kingdom of GLORY where the unveiled beauty of the personification of other-centered love exhibited by His character is the totality—the kingdom of God.
Six unexcelled privileges. Five which involve choices: if made right – there need be no concern about the one sure result – – to be taken to re-enter the full kingdom of other centered selfless love where Christ has gone to prepare a place in it for us.
The one valid question — will I, will you, have I, have you welcomed in the principle, yea the person of selfless love through the indwelling presence of Christ— HIS character — to be in you now?
JUST DO it and DON’T QUIT and don’t get the cart before the horse!
LIFE EXCOGITATIONS 