736 The Spiritual Man
righteousness and to keep our hearts, that we lose not our life. If we
would have life we must learn to obey.
The Powers of the Age to ComeWe are told that in the future kingdom the Lord Jesus is to be the
sun of righteousness with healing in its wings (Mal. 4.2). And “no
inhabitant will say, “I am sick”‘ (Is. 33.24). At that time we believers
will enjoy what the Scriptures foretell: “the perishable puts on the
imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, (and) then shall
come to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in
victory’“ (1 Cor. 15.54). To Christians, the characteristic of the
kingdom age is that there is no more weakness, sickness or death,
because our bodies will have been redeemed and Satan trodden under
foot.
We are equally instructed by the Scriptures that we may foretaste
the powers of the age to come now (Heb. 6.5). Though our bodies yet
wait to be redeemed, we today through faith can taste in advance the
powers of the coming age in having no weakness, no sickness, and
no death. This is a very deep experience, but if the Christian meets
God’s requirements and fully trusts in His Word, he is able to enjoy
such an experience. Faith is timeless: not only can it draw upon what
God has done for us in the past, it can claim as well what God will do
for us in the future.
Paul the Apostle describes the change in our bodies in this
manner: “while we are still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety; not that
we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that
what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us
for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee”
(2 Cor. 5.4-5). The word “guarantee” here connotes the idea of
“down payment”—a payment to guarantee future payment in full.
The Holy Spirit in us is God’s guarantee that “what is mortal is
swallowed up by life.” Though we have not experienced this victory