6 And formed us into a kingdom (a royal race), priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the power and the majesty and the dominion throughout the ages and forever and ever. Amen (so be it).
We are now royalty in Christ. We have been so blessed by what Jesus did for us that we are now called the sons of God! We have been given the very glory of our Lord and Savior, right now, so that we may be one with our Father, just as Jesus is One with Him! It was extremely important for our Savior to first tell us that we are royalty, that we are sin free, and that we have the full power of our Father within before He ever tells us about the turmoil of the end times. He does this because it allows us to know that we our Father is not angry with us. It shows us that we are going to be used to serve in a power that goes beyond human ability. It allows us to have no fear and actually rejoice and praise our Father, even though everything around us will be crumbling.
I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one: John 17:22
For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being]. Romans 8:29-30
Notice that Jesus tells us that we are now a Kingdom of Priests. We are not becoming a Kingdom of Priests, we are a Kingdom of priests. Just as Jesus is a King and a High Priest, so are we, who have been made one with Him. You see we can be no other way, because we are now our Lord’s physical body on the earth, Ephesians 5:30 and as 1 John 4:17 teaches us, as Jesus is, so are we in this world. Jesus prayed in John 17 multiple times that we would be one with Him, and Jesus was crucified to insure that we would be and so we are! Amen we are one with God and that is why this is such a great prophesy to read. Just wait and see how our Father is going to use His Body on this earth, it is spectacular!
7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall gaze upon Him and beat their breasts and mourn and lament over Him. Even so [must it be]. Amen (so be it).
The dead who are not in Christ, will not be raised until a 1,000 years after Jesus’ return, Revelation 20:12-15. Verse 7 clearly shows us that unsaved people do not just sleep when they die. They are actually aware and being taught to love while they are in Hades, Luke 16:20-27, and this event will inspire those people to love and desire the day when they can be raised up and be part of the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. That is an entirely different study though, but ask yourself this, why else would our Father allow the unsaved to see this happening? Is our Father so cruel that He rubs it in their faces? That is how dictators act, not our Father Who is love. Our Father uses all things for our good and showing those who even pierced Jesus this event gives them hope.
The unsaved who are alive will see Jesus’ return as well. Some of these people will have taken the Mark of the Beast and they will be destroyed at Armageddon, Revelation 16:16. But many will not have taken the Mark of the Beast and they will have not been called to be the Bride of Christ either. These people will now live under the power and rule of Christ for 1,000 years. The earth will be just like it is now. There will still be death, we know this because at the end of the 1,000 years when satan is allowed to return for a brief season, some will follow him and die, Revelation 20:3-8. Even though we believe that it is a glorious thing to live under Christ’s rule some will not. This is why they mourn and we are shown that Jesus must rule them with an iron rod during these years, Revelation 2:27. These people will actually rather follow satan at the end of the 1,000 years and they will be destroyed.
Now my hope is that these foolish people will be raised up immediately after they are destroyed for Judgement Day and that they will be judged by Grace, which is all free and unearned. I believe that only one will not be allowed to stay with us for eternity. I believe this because in Matthew 22:11-13 Jesus tells us that only one is not allowed to stay at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Jesus also tells us in John 17:2 that He has been given all flesh and in John 17:12 He goes on to tell us that He will only loose one person, who is Judas, that He has been given. I believe that our Father’s Grace is so wonderful that it will even apply to crazy people who lived under Jesus’ love for 1,000 years and rejected it. This is my prayer and my hope and to be honest I will not be offended in the least if our Father even changes His mind and lets Judas in.
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