Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Children of God, Sons of God
Vern Peterman · May 20, 2018
Unfathomable Riches of Christ, No. 18
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261910123000

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We have, as you'll see on the top of the handout, we have a schedule for May through June. We're halfway through May already, right? May through June, we started at the beginning of May with related to God through propitiation. That is, propitiation is what? Applying a lot of pitch to something? Is this what Noah did? Yeah, it's the satisfaction of God's character of holiness, righteousness, and justice by Christ's death on the cross. Complete and total payment for our sins and the complete and total satisfaction of God's character. then related to God's propitiation. So we said adoption of sons last week, children of God and sons of God, and then brethren will be next week.

We follow that in June with some other topics. One will be made close, confident access, and then two identification truths sessions where we talk about joined to and separated from. a part of our unfathomable riches. Unfathomable riches is a set of words that comes from Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 3. I think it's verse 8 if I recall correctly.

So, we're going to be looking today at two very similar expressions that we who are believers in Christ are children of God and sons of God. So these are ways, are they the only ways? No. There are ways in which we are related to God through propitiation, the satisfaction of God's character, and other massive spiritual accomplishments of the Father through Christ by means of the Holy Spirit. So the unfathomable riches that we have involve all three persons of the Trinity.

Alright, so children of God and sons of God passages. So we have below some of the passages with the term children of God and or sons of God that apply to the position of believers, especially believers here in the church age. Well you find those terms children of God or sons of God applied to others than church-age believers. Yes, so sons of God in Genesis chapter 6, and you're correct.

And also that same term shows up in the first couple chapters of Job, right? So that's one place, and that's not the only place. You also find other references, and it means different things. We saw in the book of Acts, Paul's talking to the philosophers, kind of the Athens philosophy club, there on Mars Hill, or Areopagus, as it's also called. And he talks about being children of God as physical and spiritual offspring, but not in the sense of being close in relationship to, but simply offspring.

So anyway, so you will find other references. So we're specifically zeroing in on those that apply to us in the body of Christ from the beginning of the church, which is Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, to the day of the Rapture, which I hope is today. I hope I don't get to finish teaching here. Wouldn't that be great? Go home. All right. So we're specifically looking at that, realizing that both of these terms can be found to be applied to others outside the church, and not just other people, but even, as we see, angels. So you'll have those distinctions.

So we start with John 1.12 here.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name." Is John chapter 1 talking about things before the church came about? In one sense, yes, because the gospel of John is covering times from John the Baptist and Christ's ministry on earth. I mean, it mostly covers Christ's ministry on earth, right? So this is before the church is brought about.

But John wrote this, right, many decades afterwards, and much of what John writes, although it's specific to the gospel period, there are things written in it, including this, that apply to us in the church. So, just so we aren't confused there, So as many who received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on his name. I would have to take a real careful look at the Greek as to which way that leans, but yes, it has been both ways. But think about this. If we look at it in terms of rights, do we have the right to become children of God apart from believing?

No, so not happening, right? If we talk about power, oftentimes, if that's the case, and I would have to investigate carefully, the word for dunamis is, and oftentimes that gets translated power, and it's not explosive power or wow, that's powerful, but really has more of the idea of ability, okay? There would be an inability to become a child of God were it not for believing. So that implies in my mind that I have the power to choose not to believe? That's right, or the ability, right? So can people decline believing?

Yes, and many do. So I think that would be the the perspective there, which I'd have to look at it more carefully to be certain. But I think in either case, it says that people are given an option, an ability. You're born on planet Earth, so you're going to believe, right? Yeah, not happen. People do have a choice. Here's Romans 8, 14 through 25. Let me see. Yes. And actually I stopped that at verse 21, so you might note that. And this is about where they are in the Romans class too.

So anyway, so for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs also heirs to God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him."

Next, second page. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Children of God is a couple times here, right? Sons of God is also a couple times. What's interesting is he goes back and forth. Children of God, Sons of God, Children of God, Sons of God, just in this passage. Why would he go back and forth? Is there a reason or is it just random?

Yeah, and as we'll see in just a little bit, they mean very close to the same thing. As we'll see shortly, in the culture of the day, they would be seen as nearly equivalent, even though we see there's a slight difference. And so we'll talk about that in a bit here. And note that that's Romans 8, 14 through, not 25, but 21. So next we have Galatians 3, 23 through 29.

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law. And so what's the issue of Galatians? What's the big picture issue? Yeah, so the first thing, he's right out of the chute after saying, Hi, I'm Paul and you're the Galatians. He says, if anyone comes up with a gospel different than the one that we gave to you, may they be condemned.

Let me say it again. So he really hits hard. Legalism is really big. And guess what? There are people who can study through the whole book and they still end up with what? Legalism it's just really mind-boggling that they can do that, but people do I've heard them like on the Christian radio stations, you know And where they go through then and they figure out some way to still be legalistic. I Was a John Stott who's You know was an Anglican You know very evangelical Christian author He wrote a commentary on Romans, and after he's all said and done, you know, he died to the law and all that stuff, he still believes in the Ten Commandments and annihilation, that is, no eternal hell. So it's like, woo, how did you get there? Anyway, so what do we have here?

Therefore the laws become our tutor, and that's not quite a sufficient word, That word is a slave academic master, right? Become our slave academic master to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. Declared righteous because we are or have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins, because we're in Him by faith. So now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. So we're still under the law. No, no, no, no, no, no. For you are all, how many? Mostly? You are all sons of God.

By the way, somebody came in and gave them a bad gospel after they had believed. So did they lose their salvation? No. Had they fallen from grace? Actually, in their condition, they had. Paul even says so in Galatians. You have fallen from grace. And he uses an athletic term Who cut in on you if you're in a foot race to have somebody come in and cut in on you? Which was legal in those days, by the way. Here's this foot race. Somebody cut in on you. He uses that term. He says, who cut in on you? You've been bewitched. He used all sorts of really intense terms. You're no longer under a tutor. Don't fall under the law. If you so much as are circumcised, In order to follow the law, you sign up for the whole thing. How many? 613. You doing them? Not even close. Do you know what they are? Not even close. Okay.

For you are all sons of God because you worked at it. You're all sons of God because you try really hard to be a good Christian. You're all sons of God because you have, what would Jesus do, buttons. And you look at it every day and you look in the mirror every day and say, what would Jesus do? And you give it your best effort. And you have since last Tuesday. Is that why?

No. Sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ, nothing else. Okay? For all of you who were baptized into Christ, Have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ and you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.

But the focal point here for what we're looking at is verse 26, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Next, 1 John 3, 1 and 2, see how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called children of God, and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. Stop a minute at that one.

When I was finishing up seminary, and at that time I was still a candidate here, that was 17 years ago, I was a candidate here at Holly Hills and I was still finishing up seminary and most of what I was doing was translation work. Going through different parts of the New Testament, they said, okay, translate, you know, 1 John, translate, you know, this middle part of Romans. And they'd go through different passages and they'd say, just translate this whole passage, this whole chapter, right? A bunch of time and we want you to translate and then we would take our Translation and present it in front of the class and justify it. Here's how we translate this In front of the class and they have everybody including the instructor, you know critique it. So But as I was going through first John 3 1 & 2 I just finished Translating verses 1 & 2 and then I got so teary-eyed I couldn't see the screen. Why? Pardon? Yeah, one... I'm sorry, what? Yeah, you know, let me bring out some of the things that I saw as I was translating. It wasn't just translation, it's also what's the history and culture.

So, see how great a love The Father has bestowed on us. That word bestowed is given in the Greek perfect tense, which if the context allows it, means it's permanent. Does the Father bestow love on us where He says, you know, I love you until about noon time and then after that you blew it so bad that, you know, I'm sorry Vern, but you're toast. Is that what's going to happen? The Father bestowed permanently.

Is my status as a child of God at risk? No. It's not at risk. Can I blow it? Yeah. Probably will. Is my status before the Father at risk? Not happening. Okay? Permanently given. As a matter of fact, that's one of the things I brought out in the class. I said, this implies permanence in the instructor. Right? Yep.

That we would be called children of God. Now, at first you might think, well, okay, children of God, why is that a big deal? In the Roman Empire, if you were a child of a human father, What was allowed for that father to do regarding his physical children? He could discipline them however he wished or not discipline them. He could do what else?

Kill them, abandon them, order them, sell them into slavery. And by the way, depending on how you got sold, it was famous for the slaves to be worst off in the farming and even worse yet in the mining industry. Average lifespan of a mining slave, 25 years. Average age of death of a mining slave, 25 years.

So to be called that is publicly declared a child of God, was the one exception to all those bad things that could happen. The Father was saying, my right to abandon, to abuse, to sell this child, once publicly declared and legally posted, goes away. The Father has publicly declared, called, This is my child. None of those awful things can ever happen again.

It is very similar to the adoption of sons, and that was a characteristic of adoption of sons that also applied to those who were legally declared children. But just simply to be a child in the Roman Empire, you could be subject to anything. Physical abuse, selling, sexual abuse, abandonment, outright killing. All those were allowed unless you called, publicly declared, someone your child.

That could be somebody that was adopted or not adopted by birth. That's right. Either one. But a public declaration called, this is my child, all of a sudden all those horrible things were off the list. So he couldn't kill you or sell you? That's right. All that went away if he legally went through the process of acknowledging and publicly seeing, this is my child.

We really miss it. And here's the reason why. It's because a complete Bible study is language, history, and culture. This is history and culture, right? So you look at it. So I'm looking at this and I say, how great a love. And by the way, this is John. Here's Ephesians. They've already finished in Ephesians chapter 2 in the Ephesians elective.

What great love. He has for us, right? Here we see it again, how great a love, see how great? As a matter of fact, even when I said that, how great a quality of love He has bestowed on us that we would be publicly declared children of God and such we are. Such we are. So it isn't just a hypothetical statement. Wouldn't it be great if But it's reality, such we are. Yes? It's interesting that bestowed is active perfect, not passive perfect. Yep. He deliberately, actively gave us this permanent love.

I got through translating this. By the time I was done, I just couldn't see the screen. really hit me. And imagine, here's John, he's writing to these people where your father calling you his child was not a guarantee, but to have this permanently given. People just said, hey wait, stop, let me soak this up.

This is phenomenal. So it's not like the deist god that gave it and then disappeared. It's actively involved. Yeah, this is a very important point. The Stoics that we saw in Acts 17, the Stoics believed in the gods, but the gods just kind of left them and they lived entirely separate lives. even to the point where everybody else called them atheists. They believed in the gods, but the gods were so uninvolved in the Stoic mindset that they just called them atheists. Here, what we see is exactly the opposite, and also where Paul writes to the Romans and to the Galatians, and he says, Abba, Father, this is not a deist god where, you know, God made you and then walked away. This is not the Stoics' gods. This is a God who wants an eternal relationship with you and is willing to pay the price to make sure that that has all the privileges that it possibly can. Yes?

When the father went up to declare that this was my son, did you have to pay for that document? There was typically a certain amount of fees with it. It wasn't as costly and involved as the adoption of sons. Yeah, they typically would go get somebody who's a scribe to write up the document, you know, and file it with the people. Yeah, there's a filing fee. Yep. Yes, yeah, it costs something.

But fathers would sometimes do that. But to have all of us, out of great love, to have all of us have that privilege is just astounding, just amazing. Because they couldn't count on, well, my father really loves me, or something might kill me or abandon me. And here we see the fathers declaring this, and the bestowal is permanent.

Yes, and to bestow his standpoint out as active voice. He deliberately took that step. It wasn't something he just kind of swooped into, right? This wasn't just going along for a ride. This was something he deliberately did. And it was entirely at his expense, and he didn't have to do it. He took the action.

So I look at this one other thing, to be a son of or of someone or something or to be a child of someone or something in biblical times meant to be like in character and close in relationship. So when you see that in the Bible, unless it's a physical son, and even in that we're going to see an example real quickly here, unless it's a physical son, the implication of when you see son of or child of is like in character and close in relationship. And you'll see it commonly in the Bible. An example, Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that they're sons of who? Sons of the devil, right?

Nice words. I'm sure they're pleased to hear that, you know. So you see that in the Ephesians elective, they've already been through this passage because they're right today doing a summary on chapter 2. But early on in chapter 2, sons of disobedience. Was that negative or positive? Very negative. But it's like in character and close in relationship. So if you can fix that in your mind, whenever you see that in the Bible, That's what it means. It's like in character, and close in relationship.

Let's look at the footnote at the bottom. In 1 Samuel 17, 55 and 58, now when Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, who is that? Goliath from the Valley of Elah. Been there, seen that. Woo! Amazing. So here's Here Saul saw David going out against the Philistine.

He said to Abner, the commander of the army, Abner, whose son is this young man? Why? He didn't ask who is this young man. Whose son is he? So look at the conversation. Abner said, By your life, O king, I do not know. The king said, You inquire whose son the youth is. So when David returned from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine's head in his hand. Saul said to him, Whose son are you, young man? David answered, I am the son of your servant Jesse, the Bethlehemite.

Really important in that culture, whose son are you? It continued on, so this son of, child of statement, it implied a lot. To us it's like, who cares? I guess it matters, you're doing a genealogical study. But in the biblical mindset, son of or child of matters a lot. Yes, they would. Yes, they would. For example, we see a number of instances in the New Testament. It'll say, you know, so-and-so is a son of this or that person, because it was one of the ways you would identify someone.

Let me also say that some of the things that might be done in the pagan culture were not done, as a rule, in the Jewish culture. Did the Jewish people go around killing their daughters and kids and selling them off and abusing them and making sex slaves out of them and that kind of thing? No. Yeah, so it would be something, and actually the reality is it would be something typically done under duress, right? Under duress.

Yeah. If there's any other option, they would pick the other option. So. So anyway, this is key. So what we'll find is, if you go through the New Testament, you'll find son of, or child of, or children of, sons of, all those variations in the New Testament, and it'll be in some cases negative implication, and others positive implication. You'll find both of those starting in the Gospels from Matthew and Mark and Luke, and then on into the rest of the New Testament. Yes?

Yes, and so that's a very important point because one of the things you'll see in books like the Gospel of John is John talks about character, doesn't he? And James is another book, talks about character. And so that implication of, oh, here's the father, therefore the son and the child must have this character, right? And so they're making a logical connection about character between the father and the child or the son.

And you'll find that strongly in those cultures. So yes, that's an excellent point. And so they turn around in those books and talk about, look, you're a child of God that looks like this on the outside, right? Yes. Well, and and so what you will find is is that While they would make, you know, draw conclusions like this, we can all of us think of situations where the children or the sons of turned out differently than the parents or the other way around. Boy, that guy is a great guy, but his kids are just rotten. It's possible to turn out quite differently from the parentage, but you will find frequently in scripture, if you're a child of or a son of, the father has this character, then therefore you should have this, right? So, yeah.

But I think in this particular case, it's not a common act. This is an extraordinary act that David's doing here. So he's really an exceptional example of character. So I think this is probably I don't know how you say it other than extraordinary person. And they see that in him. Who else would go out and fight this guy? Now let's ask a few questions. Here's David. He's going out to fight Goliath.

Where is he in the family lineup in terms of age? Last. Is he the oldest son? No, as a matter of fact, the other sons are sitting there right in the army, and they're not doing nothing. Boy, I'd have to study that carefully. I would not be surprised if he was still in his teens. Yeah, but that's not a studied opinion, but rather kind of an offhand thought. Also, sometimes, too, with things in the Bible, we can bracket. You know, it might be this to this example. How old was Timothy when Paul called him? That's more of a bracket answer, right? About in this range.

Okay, so here we have in the next thing, so we mentioned as we did previously, in the Roman Empire, children did not automatically have any legal protections. Abuse, abandonment, selling of slaves, even deliberate killing of children were allowed. unless they were specifically legally accepted. And the adoption of sons we talked about last week was a kind of a that plus other privileges. So it was a different legal standing, but both of them had the thing in common that their position was assured, that they had a protection that they wouldn't otherwise have.

So when we look at the child of God, children of God, sons of God, and you'll find son of God, all those different terms with respect to us church age believers, you'll find all of them. So what is this telling you? When you see those terms, what should we be thinking? Yeah, so there are several different things. We put that together with Abba Father, right? We put that together with having a close, personal, abiding relationship, John 15, with Christ. Pardon? Yeah, family connection. So you're looking at family. There's something else that's real interesting about this. We see children. We see sons.

Does God have any nephews? Any nieces? Any grandnephews? Does God have any second cousins three times removed? See, none of those, right? So that's a very interesting thing. We have all these family relationships, and I kind of enjoy studying genealogy and all that. It's amazing who I'm related to. So you go and you look at all that. From a human standpoint, we've got all these, oh, I'm distantly related to so-and-so.

That's not the case here. Every single believer has a direct child of, son of relationship with the Father. Yes? Yeah, yeah, you just didn't have that, right? Yeah, and so I think this is key. We're looking at, this is Abba Father, this is child of, son of, but none of the other derivative, family, relative relationships.

I was thinking of the term, we are life in character. Christ is the beginning of a new creation. And we are a new creation of Christ. So let's look at something, because you bring up a really good point. As a believer, I am a child of God, I am a son of God. I have those characteristics. Is that true of my position in Christ? Yes. As a believer in Christ, that's true of my position, and that's going to vary over time. Is it ever at any chance of getting messed up?

No, not happening. It's a full on, full out, 100% total deal. There's no click undo button. There's no icon to go click, click, undo. It's not happening. So this is true of our position. like in character in our position, close in relationship. Is it possible that I can get into a place where I'm really not fellowshipping with the Lord and like in character? It's like, whoa, no, that doesn't fit. Is that possible? Yes, it is, right? Yeah, so this is our condition. In my condition, I might be living at any moment, or a stretch of time, at odds with my position. But in my position, I'm a child of, I'm a son of God. I have this Abba-Pappa relationship with the Father in my position all the time.

Unvarying, not grayscale, not percentage, So in other words, what Paul is saying, the law was the tutor, so since we have the Holy Spirit as a guide, there is no need for the law. Because you have the Spirit, which is leading, and you don't have to have the guidance. which God gave to the Jewish people, because the Spirit was given. So Paul, what he's actually saying is, if you're going to follow the Spirit, and my gospel, then you don't follow it. It's not necessary anymore. Even though it's holy, good, and true, it's not necessary because you've got the Spirit. It's pretty simple. Either or.

Tennessee and his relationship with Paul was like a son, but it was an unperfectly relationship at that point. Spiritually, it was going to begin by God, but he had an introduction to all the parents. He graduated early with a Bible teaching. There were some other attitudes, but we don't have an awful lot of that in Scripture.

Yeah, in other words, that's another instance where you will see the word son of or child of used in a different sense, and somebody will be referred to as a spiritual father, right? So you will see that kind of thing, and what that's alluding to is something somewhat like the relationship with the Lord.

Yep, yep. So you'll find some near parallel to that in reference to referring to different people in the New Testament particularly. Paul writes to Timothy and he, Timothy my son, he is not physically descended from Paul, That's not the point, but he spiritually was descended from Paul in one sense, and Paul continued to bring him along, right? Yes.

So as we look at this, we say children of God, sons of God. So this is one of the reasons you'll find reference very much related to this. of family. Within the body of Christ, we are family. Right? Yeah. Yeah, there's that song, I'm so glad I'm a part of the family of God, you know. And people, it's a lot of churches. I know my grandparents practice this.

They go around calling everybody brother and sister. Right? Brother so-and-so. I remember my grandpa telling a funny story. He would give a message, you know, and then it was common to have somebody in the congregation actually do a closing prayer. And there was a fellow whose last name was Crow, and he got his words mixed up, and so he was going to ask this fellow, Mr. Crow, to pray, but he got it mixed up and he said, Mr. Prey, would you please crow? Right? So, anyway. But, excuse me, Brother Prey, would you please crow?

So, at any rate, of course, instead of bringing prayer, that brought lots of laughter. But, so anyway, what you have there is people will, sometimes in various sorts of practices, you know, within a church, acknowledge that family relationship. What we're going to look at next time is brethren. And that also fits with this family relationship.

It also fits with that we're all brethren, therefore God has no grandnieces. God has no great-great-grandchildren, etc. I was thinking that the family child of my illustration is a good one because of the closeness. But my relationship with God as his child has, and I don't know if immediacy is the right word, What I have with him is so immediate, so close. I don't have that with my brother or my mother or any of them.

There's a real difference. So the analogy sort of breaks down. Yeah, there is some sense here in which because of the character of human relationships, There's some sense here in which some of these words might be a little tough for people to fit. Some people would say, well, he's our heavenly father. And you're thinking, why would I want that? You know, so depending on the earthly relationship, some of these terms may be tougher to work with. But one of the things to remember is that often these are used in a kind of an ideal sense.

We, for example, are the bride of Christ. We in the church are the bride of Christ. Can you think of some bride relationships that were pretty bad? Well, yeah, there are some. So this is in an ideal sense, not in, you know, what's the worst you can think of. Yeah.

Well, that's why they use the words. oneness, togetherness, and also the disciples, every one of them died for. I mean, there is a bond there, and it's pretty specific. I mean, they keep going back to it all the time, this unity, this oneness, this next hand. I mean, it may not have the same relationship, but there is a bond. There are kind of multiple things to learn from this.

And one of the reasons for going through this, this is just one aspect of the unfathomable riches that we have. Right? Just one aspect of it. And we're just going to go through the rest of the year looking at all those different aspects of our unfathomable riches. And we're just going to scratch the surface, taking a year to step through it all. Yeah.

One of the verses we looked at here, We know that when He appears, what's that? Is there another term for when He appears? Rapture. We will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. In what respect will you be like Christ? One is spiritual, but let's ask this.

In your position, are you already there? Yes, and so what is going to happen, we already right now, that's what we're going through, all these unfathomable riches, because they're already in our position, already true. So what's different about when He appears? What's going to be different? Our position and our condition will be in total agreement.

Right now, I can have some circumstances. Let's say somebody walked in the room and I just got furious and you just all saw me. Vern just went corkscrew. Just went crazy because somebody walked in the room and made Vern mad. That in my condition would not be consistent with my position.

We're not going to have that tension, that dichotomy, that possibility when we go to see the Lord. Well, we will have a condition. It will be one with our position. Right now, we can have a dichotomy between those two. When He appears, that will be over. Yes?

So that's one thing is, the reason your sin nature is still attached to your body is in order to get rid of it, God would have to kill you. Right? And He doesn't want all these people, as soon as they become believers, they're dead. Right? So instead, what He does is the sin nature is still attached to this body.

He gives you a means of being victorious over it. But when we go to be with the Lord, the sin nature is terminal. Okay? You're done with it. The sin nature is terminal. It's gone. And you're not dealing with it anymore. And your position and your condition are one and the same. Yes. But that's the other thing. That's the other thing. We've got an entirely different body, and our bodies will be like His body. We will be like Him. So let's think about this. What ways will we be like Him? Will I be the second person of the Trinity? No. So one thing is, there will be a difference that I will never be deity. Will I have Christ's history? I will in what five respects?

Death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding, and that's all by grace. And so I won't have everything about Christ's history. I won't have His history of being born in Bethlehem. I won't have His history of crossing the boat with the disciples. from after feeding the 4,000, crossing the boat from east to west, and landing at Magdala. I won't share that history, but I will share a history with him forever. His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. I will be like him. So my history will be in those five things, and I will not share his deity. But everything else, I will.

Yes? We won't be terrified when we see it, because everybody who saw angels or Christ in this body was terrified. Yes. In this body, from an earthly perspective, angels were almost universally terrifying. Right? First thing angels would say, don't be afraid. Yeah, good luck with that, right?

Here's this thing, the brightest thing I've ever seen. It's like looking at the sun, only it's, you know, 10 feet away from me. Yes, our bodies will be changed and our perspective will be changed instantaneously. Well, we're out of time. But that's a good thing, right? That's a good thing because we'll resume this with brethren next week and it'll be another made close, right? Related because of perpetuation. God satisfied and now I have a family relationship. Now I am close because God took all the steps necessary.

So, let's pray. Lord, what wonderful, marvelous, just fantastic things we get to take a look at here in this elective, and we just give you thanks for it all. We pray, Lord, that you would grow our hearts and grow our minds in that perspective and understanding. And we bring these things before you and trust everything to you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.