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"When we understand that the saints are the rich glory of Jesus Christ's inheritance, we have added light on the mystery of the suffering of the saints. |
...that ye may know...what [are] the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. (Ephesians 1:18) When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed. (2 Thessalonians 1:10 RV) |
The suffering of the saints at heart is not what is ensnaringly known as 'Deeper Death to Self'; it springs from an active submission and determination to accept the intensely individual responsibility of doing God's will. It is not absolution by loss of individuality.... It is rather the transfiguration of individuality in the mastership of God's purpose in Christ -- 'till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ' (Ephesians 4:13 RV)." |