A Place In the Wilderness

to come to the earth twice. His first advent was through His in- carnation to be a man. During that time He sowed Himself as the word into man. He Himself was the seed He planted in all those who believed in Him. At His second advent, He will come to reap that which He sowed in His first advent. When the Lord Jesus returns to the earth, He will be the Harvester, gathering all of God’s “grain” to Himself.

John 1:12-13 But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

The Growth in Life

More than two thousand years have passed between these two comings of Christ. This has been a long period for the growth of all the believers. During this time they were to have grown in Christ, and Christ was to have grown in them. This is the Lord’s understanding of the Church Age, as illustrated by His words in Matthew, “Let them both grow until the harvest.”

This view of the Church Age was also shared by the Apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians he said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” In various other places he tells us that the building is growing, that we all will arrive at a full-grown man, that we grow up into Him in all things, and that the Body grows with the growth of God.

Peter also realized that the believers must grow in the divine life for the Lord’s return, saying “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation.” James likened the Lord to a husbandman waiting for his crop (i.e, the believers) to ripen. Finally, the Apostle John in his Gospel, his epistles, and the book of Revelation emphasizes the growth of the believers in the divine life. In John 15 he portrays the Lord as the vine and we all as His branches, which grow and bear fruit. In his first epistle, John addresses the believers as little children, young men, and fathers – a classi- fication according to the growth in life. In Revelation he speaks of the believers both as the firstfruits and the harvest, again stressing the importance of the growth in life.

2 The Coming End of the Age