In my younger days, I attended my local Anglican church. The vicar was a good man, but was distressed with the state of the Church of England. “We need to get back to the Reformation”, he said. The Church of England was corrupted with all sorts of wrong teachings and doctrines that had come from the Church of Rome, and no doubt in many other ways.
A few years later, I briefly attended a Brethren assembly. One of the elders sighed sadly and said, "“The Brethren movement is not what it used to be. We need to get back to its original purity”.
Soon after I experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit and joined a local Pentecostal church. Before long I discovered that the Pentecostal movement was not what it used to be. We needed to get back to its wonderful beginnings and early days.
Then I had my own revelation. We did not need to get back to any of these movements, wonderful though they may have been. We needed to get back to the Bible, to the New Testament; to the book of Acts and to the early church.
Had I finally reached the truth? What could ever be more wonderful than the early church with the day of Pentecost and the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Some people might wonder how I had been so dumb as not to see this from the beginning.
Thousands or maybe millions of people believe that the Book of Acts gives us the final all-time model for what the Christian church ought to be. Peter knew Jesus personally and spent three years with him learning how to be an apostle and preach the gospel. Paul had a personal meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus and subsequently spread the gospel all over the Roman empire. Both Peter and Paul and many others experienced the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit and God confirmed their preaching with miracles of healing. Are they not wonderful examples of how the church ought to be today?
The Pharisees also looked back to a wonderful time in their history. They believed that Moses was the all-time model for the Jewish people. “We know that God has spoken to Moses”, they said “but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from” (John 9:29). As a result, they rejected their Messiah when he stood before them.
Here we must stop and ask a question. Did the early apostles think they had reached the climax of God’s purposes? Or did they think there was more and better to come? Let’s look at what they said.
The following words from Paul all indicate that he believed that better things lay ahead:
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (1Cor 13:8-10). Paul clearly thought there was better to come. The perfect had not yet arrived.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:11-13).
For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed.
For the creation was subjected to futility — not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it — in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children (Rom 8:19-21).
“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2Pet 1:19).
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (1John 3:2).
In Romans 8:19, Paul wrote of the “Manifestation of the Sons of God”.
What did Paul mean by this phrase?
He clarified his meaning in Romans 8:21: “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
How will the creation be delivered from its bondage to corruption?
Paul says that this will be accomplished by the “sons of God”. He explains that God will bring to the birth sons who will be like their elder brother Yeshua (Jesus). In Rom 8:29, he writes:“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
What John wrote is similar: “Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1John 3:2).
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