foretaste of glory VANCE HAVNER
T n a l l the controversy over the Sixth Chapter of Hebrews we have overlooked a little phrase tucked away in verse 5 which speaks of those who “ have tasted . . . the powers of the world to come.” Contrary to the evolutionists and our science textbooks, the Scriptures teach that man started out in a Paradise with all creation at peace. The animals did not prey upon each other and the reign of tooth and claw had not begun. But sin entered, man fell and then the trouble began. Paradise was lost, creation was ruined and the earth was spoiled of its original glory. It is still lovely in spots but on the most gorgeous day we are reminded of a better day long past. The snake glides in the grass, the birds watch nervously for hidden enemies, bloodshed an4 death abound. The human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Man’s inhumanity to man fills the papers with lurid crime. The whole creation suffers in the bondage of corruption, it groans and travails in pain—all because we sinned. We are to blame for it. We have tried to make this world look like the original Garden of Eden but we always end up admitting that “ change and decay in all around we see.” We make minor improvements. Burbank may develop a wild rose into a thing of beauty and make a crab-apple edible but that does not prove upward evolution, it proves downward degeneration. Burbank only pulled roses and apples up a little toward what they were when God first made them. If we try to grow a garden we must contend with bugs and weeds and weather. The course of ruined nature is against us. We ourselves are wrecks. We begin to die the day we are born. An eight-year-old was “ peeling off” after too much sunshine. “ Look at that,” he said, “ I’m only eight years old and wearing out already.” Our bodies degenerate as our bifocals and dentures, our aches and pains, remind us. We groan in this tabernacle. “The way I know my youth is spent, My ‘get up and go’ has got up and went!” Mentally we are not “ all there.” Our judgments are faulty, we make mistakes. Our spiritual natures are warped and twisted. We take to evil like a duck to water. Civilization is a wreck, not going to the dogs but to the vultures as our Lord declared in His figure of the decaying carcass (Lk. 17:37). Of course thing«! are not as bad as they could be nor are they as bad as they will be.
On the other hand, they are not as good as they once were nor as they will be. But we will never regain Paradise Lost under our own power. We have tried it for centuries and look where we are! “ For further information read your newspaper” ! Creation groans. Humanity groans. Civilization groans. But we are not to the end of the story. Only the Creator can recreate His own creation. That is exactly what He is doing. The first Adam was a failure. He made a wreck of himself and of all creation. Almost twenty centuries ago God started over. He sent His Son, both God and man, to be the Adam of a new race. The first Adam failed because of sin but the last Adam took all sin upon Him, died and rose again, becoming the first-born from among the dead as well as the first-born of every creature and the first-born among many brethren. Jesus Christ is the Number One Man of a new race and as many as receive Him are given power to become sons of God, born-again members of the new race. Here is the biggest race ques tion today: do you belong to the new race of the children of God? But even we who are members of the new creation groan within ourselves waiting for the redemption of our bodies at the resurrection. We still have our bifocals and our rheumatism and our minds make mistakes. The job is not finished yet. God is still working on us. It doth not yet appear what we shall be. A look in the mirror estab lishes that! We still live in this ruined old world but we belong to another world, our citizenship is in heaven. This age is drawing to a close and we are waiting for a new age to begin when Jesus comes. The resurrection will mean for us brand-new bodies and, beyond that, new heavens and new earth, a redeemed creation. Our redemp tion draws nigh, now is our salvation nearer, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. In the meantime, to return to our text, we who are bom again have already tasted the powers of that new age, we have had a sample of what will be our regular fare through all eternity. We get our first taste at regeneration. The Spirit comes to dwell and His Presence is an earnest, a pledge, a first installment of more to follow. Fanny Crosby wrote: “ Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a FORETASTE OF GLORY Divine!” We taste of the powers of the age to come when we
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THE K IN G 'S BU SINESS
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