1Pet 1: 13 Therefore girding up the loins of your mind and being sober, set your hope perfectly on the grace being brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. John 1: 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.
The grace has been brought to us by the Lord's first coming (John 1:17). It will be consummated by His second coming. On such grace we should set our hope. Whatever we enjoy of the Lord today is, comparatively speaking, a small portion. In the Bible this is called the foretaste; it is not yet the full taste. This age is an age of foretaste. But when the Lord Jesus comes back, we shall enjoy the full taste. While we are enjoying the foretaste, we set our hope on the coming full taste. The nature, the essence, and the reality of the foretaste are the same as that of the full taste. The difference is one of quantity. Today we are enjoying a small portion as a sample, a foretaste. Eventually we shall enjoy the full portion and experience the full taste. Therefore, on the one hand, we are now enjoying grace; on the other hand, we are expecting the coming full taste. This means that as we are enjoying the foretaste, we are expecting to have the full taste. This causes us to set our hope on the coming full taste. The coming full taste will be the consummation of this unique grace. This grace is not merely unmerited favor. It is the Triune God as our full salvation for our full enjoyment. Today we have only the foretaste, the enjoyment of a small portion, but the full taste is coming. Let us set our hope on this coming full taste, which will be the consummation of grace. (c) 2007 Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of First Peter, pp. 89-90. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
To unsubscribe from the mailing list, either: Send an email to: [email protected] (No subject or message needed; a blank email will work) or visit www.emanna.com and fill out the unsubscribe form there.
