That's a relief!
1 Corinthians 13: 9-12 9 For
we know in part and we prophesy in part,10 but
when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.12 For now we see in a
mirror dimly, but then
face to face. Now I know in part; then I
shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
- When perfect comes
- We now see in a mirror dimly. The mirror of that day was a polished piece of brass....at best it was a blurry, distorted view of the truth.
- But now, after perfection, you will see God face to face. You can not see God face to face in your human condition. The Jews knew this since God told Moses on Mt. Sinai that no man could look God in the face and live, not even Moses, They knew God meant, while in the physical!
Hmmm!?!? Moses could not, but Jesus brought something more, did he not?
"And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.
And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly." Mark 8:23-25
If we see something good after being touched once, would not we be able to see something very good or better after each subsequent touch? Is this not moving from the "through a glass, darkly" vision toward the "face to face" vision? Who is to say that a man cannot get there before the dirt is thrown over his face? What scripture says there will be another time period after this "course" (Acts 20:24, II Tim 4:7) is finished for us? Isn't the here and now our allotted time to overcome as Jesus overcame?
When is it that the "old man" is completely dead? When is it that the "new man" is born? When is it that the "new man" is mature? Consider Jesus, who was tempted in all points as we are:
"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." Luke 2:52
Jesus grew because, although he was always without sin, he was nonetheless incomplete until he experienced all that was necessary as a man and had overcome of his own world of his own flesh [John 16:33] and until he suffered all that he was to suffer [John 19:30]. Our time of overcoming is not in the next world but in this one where we are tempted as Jesus was tempted.
God said he was spirit. When you die your physical death,you will go to the spirit world
Where is this spirit world?
and be perfected in the presence of God and then and only then will you finally be perfect and able to fully coexist with God and then know fully!
If we are growing as Jesus was growing, is this not the "new" "inner man" that is growing? If we have already been "born again" (or from above), was the "new man" not born while we were here in this flesh before the natural demise of this flesh? Is not the test here? Is not the temptation here? Is not the growth here? Are not the "eyes to see" to be here? What is that will remain to be done after the dirt is thrown on our faces? As the flesh of Jesus died, did he not say "it is finished"? Why would our "course" in this flesh be different? Can we not be like him here? Is that an impossible task for God?
If we cannot see God before natural death, why did Jesus ask this question?
"...Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" John 14:9
Then will you know fully brother, when you have long left this world and in the presence of God!
Is the old world planet Earth or is it this little lump of flesh which houses the "old man" and the "new man"? The one is to decrease while the other is to increase, or..? We are to be dying daily, not just looking the day that this body of flesh breathes it last bit of oxygen.
