OUR
ETERNAL HOME
By D. M. PANTON
With our horizon darkening with ever heavier clouds, and in a
century of ever increasing tragedies, it is most blessed - and most necessary -
to face our ideal outlook. The vision of
the child of God is totally different from the vision of the world, for we see beyond what the eye can see. The eye or disc of a telescope recently
constructed, the disc of which took five years to grind and polish at a cost of
£1,200,000 and which is enclosed in a moving mechanism of 2,000 tons, shows us
countless stars which no natural eye can ever see. How marvellous that God has put in our hands a
telescope - the Bible, at a cost of eleven martyred
apostles and millions of martyrs since - which reveals the Holy City that is
our eternal home, and which equally no natural eye can by any possibility now
see. And I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth - all that we can see now are passed away; and I saw
the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God (Rev. 21:
1). No angel is named: there is
only one citizenship in the
No
Curse
Now let us turn our telescope on the City. One vast negative in it blots out all the
past. And there shall be NO CURSE any more (Rev. 22: 3). A curse fell upon an individual, as Achan; upon a city, as
Service
Next the regenerate physique in a regenerate world is
unfolded. And there shall be night no more: that is, within the City, for day and night (we are told) remain on the
new earth: and
they need no light of lamp, nor light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them
light. The radiance of our Lord in the
Transfiguration is permanent in the City, as Paul saw on the way to
One
Throne
The vast wonders that dominate the world to come are next
revealed. And THE THRONE of God and of the Lamb shall be therein. It is a single Throne, the seat and centre of
all power throughout the whole universe; ruling out for ever all anarchy, and
wicked dictatorships, and lawless democracy, and savage militarisms. No statement could express the Godhead of Christ
more absolutely. Not two thrones, but
one throne, and the Lamb is its equal Occupant; not two Gods, but one God - His servants shall serve him: on the other hand, two luminaries - the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp
thereof is the Lamb - but one light the Lord God shall give them
light: two Occupants of
the Throne, but one Deity - they shall see his face - one Face.
A
Changed Body
Now we reach our own activities. And his servants - the officers of the palace, the officials nearest the
Throne, through whom the Throne acts - shall do him [priestly] service; and they shall see his face: He is forever mirrored before their
eyes, and they have access to Him at all times; and his name shall be on their foreheads. The picture, so simply worded, is
extraordinarily suggestive. Seven times
death, for the believer, is described in Scripture as entering into rest: on the contrary in resurrection
life, with a flawless body, work, not rest, will be our joy; and this Scripture
reveals the mighty activities and responsibility of princes. Then the vision of
God is the alchemy of man. We shall be LIKE HIM, for we shall see
him (1 John 3: 2):
with unveiled
face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3: 18). And
then the royal insignia will be ours. The
Order of the
Glory
So our physical change is revealed in an astounding
revelation. We shall see God literally and
physically, with our risen eyes actually looking into the face of God; and
mentally and spiritually this vision will be so enlarged that we shall look
into the soul and life of Christ and God, so as to understand His work, His
love, Himself as never before. And the
glory of our new-made bodies is graded by the fidelity of earthly service. One star differeth from another star in glory - but all shine so also is the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15: 41): they shall shine as the brightness of the firmament,
and as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. 12: 3).
Royalty
The concluding word, one of the Bibles most wonderful sentences,
baffles all comment. And they shall reign for ever and ever. The fellow-kings in our Lords millennial
reign on the old earth were sharply limited in number, according to their
equipment for royalty through training in discipleship: these, with all defect
and failure dealt with and finished, are the redeemed of all ages - Patriarchal,
Legal, Christian - reigning on the sole ground that their names are written in
the Lambs Book of Life. Moreover the
royalty, which is eternal, expands, in a degree known only to God; for while,
as risen, their own number is for ever limited - for if there is no more death,
there can be no more resurrection - the nations over whom they rule, still in
the flesh, indefinitely expand; unto all generations of the age of the ages (Eph.2:
7) as Paul puts it. So here is
our eternal home. No curse - perfect
sinlessness; the Throne - perfect government; service - perfect power; visions
- perfect joy; foreheads stamped - perfect security; light - perfect knowledge;
reigning - perfect royalty.
The
Lamb
Now see the final enormous consequence of a single phrase. THE
LAMB - the offered Sacrifice - is on the Throne for ever. Therefore how certainly we can be totally
saved. For if Christ be God, He could
bear the sins of the entire race: if Christ be God, the sacrifice on
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