Summer 1995
The Coming Intervention
Richard M. Riss

Apart from revelation, it is impossible for mankind to recognize their desperate need of redemption. If they had the slightest inkling as to how irretrievably lost they are, the relevance of Jesus Christ and Christianity would never be questioned.

Our fallen state can be easily recognized. All have illnesses, grow old and die. According to the Bible, physical death is a direct result of the fact that we live in a fallen state. Everyone therefore is in need of redemption through Jesus Christ, whose defeat of sin and death became manifest in His death upon the cross.

Apart from Jesus being physically raised from the dead, there is no possible solution to the problem of sin and physical death. Nor could the problem have been solved if Jesus had had a human father. Without the virgin birth, eternal life could not have been introduced to the fallen human race.

As a result of the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the entire human race is under the judgment of sin and death. With the advent of Darwinism in the mid- nineteenth century, it became fashionable to disbelieve in the historical fall of Adam and Eve. Those who continued to believe were increasingly held in contempt as being anti-intellectual.

The Christian faith has no lasting value and purpose if there is no need for redemption from this state of fallenness and mortality. When western culture stopped believing that mankind is fallen, it ceased to believe in the necessity of redemption, and Christianity increasingly became irrelevant to modern culture.

There is evidence of the fall everywhere. When the Bible states that the ground is cursed, it means much more than "farming" becoming more difficult than before the sin of Adam. Everything is now much more difficult. We must work very hard with meager results, whatever we do.

Jesus came to break the bonds of the curse and to set us free from its effects that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. Although He has given us certain signs and foretastes of this redemption, for the most part, the physical manifestation of redemption has yet to come because we are yet subject to futility, illness, and death.

However, the resurrection of Jesus is a guarantee to us that we will be set free from vanity, sin, and death. There are those who think that when this redemption occurs, there will no longer be a necessity for the existence of the material world, or of its Christian inhabitants. One version of this idea became widely circulated in the nineteenth century through John Nelson Darby who borrowed it from the Irvingites.
According to the Bible, in the time of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, there will be a tremendous shaking, and as a result of this, everything in heaven and on earth will be made new. Due to the intervention of the Lord and the resulting changes in the heavenlies, there will be a supernatural redemption of our physical bodies and eventually, of all the material world.

When these things happen, we will thereby be ushered into the age to come, but this will be accomplished, not through man's agency, but by the supernatural power of God through the intervention and return of Jesus Christ. Many are deceived into thinking that mankind will somehow bring about this new age through his efforts at peacemaking and his attempts to rectify the problems of the world.

But our problems are a direct result of the fall. They can therefore be rectified only by a full redemption of mankind from that fall. Just as Adam introduced sinfulness to all of humanity, so it is that through Jesus, redemption must be accomplished.

According to the Bible, this redemption will take place in stages. The first part has already happened in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In the next stage, God will bring redemption to the physical bodies of those whom He has chosen as vessels for the manifestation of His glory.

The Bible refers to this special group as "overcomers."

"To him that overcometh will I grant to
sit with me in My Throne, even as I also
overcame, and am set down with my Father
in His Throne" Rev 3:21.

There are many who are saved, but are not overcomers. If we desire to be in this chosen group, then we must presently give ourselves totally to Him. This is not something that can be done in our strength, but as we call upon Him wholeheartedly, He will cause circumstances to bear upon us, which will bring us into the place of obedience.

No one knows exactly if they are among these overcomers, although it is conceivable that the Spirit of God may give hints, or glimpses into this. No organization on earth will be made up solely of these, nor will any such organization ever arise.

These "overcomers" will be partakers of the manifest glory of God. They will be the first to have resurrected bodies, no longer subject to decay and death. Contrary to popular expectation, they will exist upon the earth in this state of indestructibility and will be the vehicles that God will use to bring about a further redemption. Collectively, along with Jesus Christ who is pre-eminent among them, they will fulfill the prophecies of the coming Messiah by bringing about the knowledge of the true ways of the Lord to all nations.

However, having a belief in these things will not guarantee our having a place among these overcomers, who sing their testimony,
"And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art
worthy to take the book, and to open the
seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and
hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out
of every kindred, and tongue, and people,
and nation; and hast made us unto our God
kings and priests: and we shall reign on
the earth" Rev 5:9-10.

Obedience, or the wholehearted effort to obtain the necessary grace from God to walk in obedience, is absolutely essential to those who aspire to be among these overcomers. This is the key to our coming into His Higher purposes. It is God who grants the desire to be among His chosen, and it is obedience to Him in every matter that will enable each of us to make our calling and election sure.

If the Lord is opening our understanding to these truths and other related matters, we may be sure that He is calling us to this, His highest and most holy purpose. Since the knowledge of these matters alone does not constitute a guarantee of our partaking of them, we should be diligent in following the Lamb no matter where He leads, yielding up our own thoughts and desires, giving ourselves totally to Him.