I think there is a sea of forgiveness already filled, into which the sins of all men will be poured and consumed by the gracious forgetfulness of God. So in a sense it is already “finished”. That forgetfulness is in itself a promise of life, to be delivered on the other side of broken and a contrite heart, which is the means of access to it- the key to the prison cell of futility. God is not bound by any lack of time. Every soul will eventually be humbled before Him- displayed in the perfect image of Himself that removes the sting of sin and death by everyone who sees it- Christ crucified.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, “If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men to me”.
He has been lifted up from the earth and He is in the process of drawing all men unto Him,
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, each in His own order.”
As each one sees the serpent upon the stick, and is slain by it, they are healed of the serpents bite. “Death where is Thy sting”?" The sting of sin is death. Death is swallowed up in immortality.
Righteousness is by faith in Christ, that is the seed planted in the heart, where the vine of righteous thoughts and acts begin to follow- but it must always be returned to, that core, because “We all stumbled in many ways”.
“If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
But why? If all our sins are already covered why should we acknowledge them again. What more cleansing do we need than what we received on the day we believed and were cleansed as we bowed the knee in out hearts and perceived Him first as Savior, and then as Lord of all?
Because of the body of this death that we are being separated from, day by day if we continue in His word in the fiery crucible of life, our dependence upon Him growing as our dependence on the ways of men and the lusts of the flesh diminishes and the pleasures of the mind lose their attraction- we renew our initial humble bow as the revelation of His glory grows and we are consumed by it “Beholding with unveiled face, as in a mirror the glory of the Lord and being transformed into the same image with ever-increasing glory by the Spirit who is the Lord”.
Our growing dependence upon Him comes as we become more aware of the futility of self and it is the means by which we are securely grafted into the vine of life. It is renewed day by day by deaths and resurrections, mortification and renewal, within the heart, soul and spirit.
“Change your ways and thoughts and return to your first love or I will come and remove your Lampstand from its place”.
“I am the true Vine, if any man does not abide in me he will become withered as a branch and he will be cut off and gathered by men and cast into the fire.”(Jn 15)
So it is a process sparked by a single all sufficient event. If we argue between the process and the event, as if one transcends or supplants the other- I think we just prove we havent seen deeply enough through the colors of the prism into the white light that combines them all into one…
“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with continual burning?”
15He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity,
He who rejects unjust gain
And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;
He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed
And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;
16He will dwell on the heights,
His refuge will be the impregnable rock;
His bread will be given him,
His water will be sure.(Is 33)
But how will he walk in this righteousness?
By a broken and a contrite heart.
How will he find that?
Through daily deaths and rebirths, growing in grace.
What if one refuses the deaths and wants only the life?
He will recede slowly following many appeals(because God is merciful) back into death until the second death renews him to repentence again.
The process is not at odds with the event that sparked it all. Into the chaos the words were spoken “Let there be light” and separations and creation begins.
All men are secured by predestination, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”. IMO the Lamb slain IS the foundation of the world- from which all, exploded into chaos and scattered through futility is being “gathered into one in Christ”- like the universe contracting from the big bang into the pristine seed of the Logos that spawned it.
Are they in it who have not seen it? They are not in it experientially. They are veiled by time and mortality. So, does it do them any good? or does it do us any good to tell them they are in it already?
maybe, but to tell them it is there for them seems more effective to me, than to argue among ourselves as to whether it is already or isnt until some point in time. To let them kno the experience of life and light and righteousness is available to change their experience works for me because no one knows anything but by what they have seen or experienced.
“Who has known the mind of the Lord and who has been His counselor…For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things to whom be the glory throuh the ages.”’
The I Am was and is and is to come. All these things are eternal in His presence. His presence is felt and seen when the veil is torn…
And we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image…"
And he is the radiance of the Father’s glory and the exact representation of His nature…
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
So to me its more about veils being lifted.
“Upon this mountain I will remove the covering that veils the people”(Isaiah 25)
and while we can debate the objective status of those who are still blind the efect of their blindness is no different for them until they experience the revelation of their deliverance, Christ crucified- and receive of that revelation a broken and a contrite heart.
And we who have already received it, will not plumb the depths of it and bring it forth in the form of practical salvation for the lost, eyesight to the blind, unless we abide in that state of being and that process.
If we do not, and we wither as a branch, and are cut-off, our experience is the reality we will know regardless of the objective finality we see with our minds in the distance, and our disagreements about things seen through the glass darkly.
