Wonderful Things to Come

1 Corinthians 2:9 As it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him.”

I read that this fantastic promise refers back to another great promise given by God to His people in Isaiah 64:4: “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waits for him”.  The Old Testament promise applied primarily to the nation of Israel, but its New Testament extension incorporates it in a global promise to all who love the Lord of Glory, crucified for our sins, the One who was also the Savior of the world – Jesus Christ. We need to live with the eternal perspective of God's promised land of the kingdom of Heaven. 

Comparison of the two prophetic promises yields three vital truths. These things that God has prepared for His loved ones have been in view “since the beginning of the world,” and have been revealed in part by the prophets, who have been speaking also “since the world began”. Secondly, those who “wait for him” in the Old Testament are synonymous with those who “love him” in the New. The apostle Paul joins both themes together when he says in 2 Timothy 4;8: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness . . . and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing”. We can get so short-sighted with the immediate times of this material world, that we lose sight of the wonderful world to come.

Finally, we cannot even begin to comprehend the glorious things God has prepared for those who love Him and wait for Him. In some measure, the Spirit later revealed them in part through John’s eyes and ears when he saw “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven” and heard “a great voice out of heaven saying . . . God himself shall be with them, and be their God” in Revelation 21;2-3. Then our eyes shall fully see, and our ears hear, and our hearts understand, the fullness of God’s love in Christ. The great things of God and the incredible things of Heaven are far above and beyond our ability to comprehend that we only see dimly, with the glimpse that the Creator has revealed in His creation and creatures found in nature and visible in the universe above.

This is just a preview of the wonderful things to come.

In Christ, Brian