Blessed Hope for the BUT NOW Body of Christ: Page 100

Blessed Hope for the BUT NOW Body of Christ (Titus 2:13)
 

27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
 

9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 

 

10 Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 

 

11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do (I Thessalonians 5:9-11).
 

We know that in the BUT NOW dispensation, at the moment of death, the spirit goes back to God (Ecclesiastes 12:7) and our soul, our new creation in Christ, will be present with the Lord (II Corinthians 5:6-8; Philippians 1:21-24). 

 

If we are present with the Lord immediately or we sleep and awake to be with the Lord, we will not notice any lapse of time. 

 

We will wait for the change, our new home for our spirit and soul at the rapture, the catching away, which can happen at the next moment. 

 

This doctrine of imminence always gives us hope for a better future and is a motivating power to serve Him. 

 

We can fix our minds more on the one who blesses us, His love, His grace, His coming glory. 

 

Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed (Romans 13:11). 

 

We look forward to when our temporary, fleshly, earthly unsubstantial tent/tabernacle will dissolve, for God will re-clothe us with our new home which is from heaven. 

 

The faithful Christian is watching and waiting for their blessed hope. 

 

5b The Lord is at hand (Philippians 4:5b).
 

1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

 

2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 

 

3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 

 

4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life (II Corinthians 5:1-4).
 

13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13).
 

20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: 

 

21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself (Philippians 3:20-21).
 

11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that  raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you (Romans 8:11).
 

8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing (II Timothy 4:8).
 

 

13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 

 

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 

 

15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (go before) them which are asleep. 

 

16 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: 

 

17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 

 

18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words (I Thessalonians 4:13-18).
 

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 

 

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed (I Corinthians 15:51-52).
 

It is interesting to note that the above scripture is well-connected with the presentation of Gospel of Grace (I Corinthians 15:3-4), for they are both found in the fifteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians. 

 

There is no way to connect our hope with the Kingdom program, the prophetic scripture, found in the book of Revelation. 

 

The present day BUT NOW Dispensation of Grace will come to completion with the joyous rapture of the church. 

 

The Body of Christ will meet the Lord in the air and be changed. There is one generation of believers that will not experience death as we know it. 

 

When this Dispensation of Grace comes to its sudden end, which can occur at any moment, those who are still alive on the earth, who have been saved by the grace of God, and those children under the age of accountability, they all will, in a moment and a twinkling of an eye, join with the souls of those who have died in Christ, and together they will all meet the Lord in the air. 

 

They shall be changed and be forever with the Lord. 

 

These souls never need to worry about God’s judgment prophesied for Israel in the Great Tribulation or The Great White Throne of Judgment. 

 

God’s ambassadors will be called home to heaven before that Great War in heaven and on earth. 

 

God has not appointed the Body of Christ to wrath (I Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9; Romans 5:9). 

 

Christ’s body has already been punished on the cross. After the rapture of the Body of Christ, the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Great Tribulation, the times of the Gentiles will have been fulfilled (Luke 21:24). 

 

As stated earlier in Ephesians 2:7, in the next dispensation, the AGES TO COME, we will sit together in heavenly places and be shown the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. 

 

And so shall we ever be with the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:17b).