4. Power, the positive side of holiness is now particularly manifested.
Also, the night of trouble, trial, testing, temptations, and tears will
pass away. The "morning star" is seen. He is looking toward the
sun-rising, toward the morning when the Sun of righteousness shall
appear.
5. Now, the "white raiment" of a holy life shines forth particularly.
His outward life and testimony give him away. His hidden life manifests
itself outwardly and differentiates itself from all other life. The
inward glory is shining out to the surface, and his life is seen and
felt. In proportion to the inward glory will the outward effulgence be
manifested. Jesus, on the mount of transfiguration, let the inward glory
out through His garments, and they became garments of light.
Now comes the announcement that his name will not be blotted out of the
book of life. While it is possible to pass the point in sin, where the
soul fixes its destiny for damnation, so it seems that there is a point
in the progress of spirituality and grace and overcoming, that fixes the
soul's destiny for glory. His name is confessed before God and the
angels. The veil is getting very thin here, between the overcoming
pilgrim and paradise. In fact he is living mostly in heaven now.
6. He is now counted a pillar in a peculiar sense. Like the pillars of
ancient Egypt and Babylon where great monarchs carved their names,
battles, victories, marvelous achievements, and chiseled their pedigree
and dynasty, so God takes this time-honored, battle-scarred,
self-sacrificing pilgrim at this stage and makes him an illustrious
pillar in the temple of God, and writes in his favor his victories and
exploits, his overcoming life. He is to go no more out. As some are
sealed for eternal damnation in this life, so he is sealed for eternal
glory.
"I will write upon him." Yes, God will carve upon him victories and
conquests. He will write upon him the city of God--his sure destination.
Like the address on a sealed letter, with the government of the country
back of it to see that it arrives safely at its destination, so with
God's "epistles," "sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise," with the
address of his destination plainly written thereon, and with the
government of all heaven interested in seeing him through, we see the
overcoming saint nearing the Great White Throne. The end is near; he is
overcoming to the last. He has been ascending the steps, till now he
sees inside the pearly gates, and one step more will put him inside.
7. Here he is in glory at last, and a place with Jesus in His throne.
Exalted place! With Christ, the great Overcomer, he sits down with Him
in His throne. It is more than finite minds can comprehend. Surely, it
will pay to be true to Jesus and be a final overcomer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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