Hi Mike,

I am listening to the Revelation Study, and I have a question I was hoping you could answer. It is my understanding that man must not live by bread alone but by every word of God and that God is no respecter of persons. With that said I believe that every person ever will have to live out every word of the scriptures. I also think I understand that every man does this in God’s own order with Jesus Christ the first fruit and then the Elect and then the rest of mankind. So my question is how does the rest of mankind live out the part of God’s word that speaks about the elect? What am I missing?

Thank you for your time,
L____

Hi L____,

Thank you for your question. You ask:

… how does the rest of mankind live out the part of God’s word that speaks about the elect? What am I missing?

I suppose you could just as easily ask, ‘How do God’s elect live out the part of God’s Word that speaks about those who are raised at the white throne judgment?’

Your question is asking how this verse in Ecclesiastes 9 can be true.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

The answer is that just as we “fill up what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ” (Col 1:24), so also will those who come after us fill up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ, until Christ has filled all men, and in doing that He has “in the saints”, filled His Father. Here is how Paul explains this process.

Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19 And what [ is] the exceeding greatness of his power to us- ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set [him] at his own right hand in the heavenly [places],
Eph 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world [Greek: aion, age], but also in that which is to come:
Eph 1:22 And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Notice that “Christ’s inheritance is in His saints”. Without us He has no inheritance, and without Him we have no inheritance. It is “the church which is His body, [which is] the fullness of Him [ Christ in His Father] that fills all”.

In other words it is only “in the saints” that Christ can fill His Father who fills all things.

Here is this same process in our Lord’s own words:

Joh 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

What an incredible statement for those who have eyes that see and ears to hear!!! If we are in Christ, then we are in the Father. What a comforting revelation! Being in Christ is God’s goal for all men, but there will always be different parts of that body serving different functions. That body will always have a head.

This logically leads Paul to this conclusion just six verses later.

Eph 2:6 and He raised us up together and seated us together in the heavenlies [or, heavenly (realms)] in Christ Jesus, (ALT)

In Christ, according to Christ Himself, we are “Jesus of Nazareth”.

Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

So we are “Jesus of Nazareth… seated with Him in the heavens… at the right hand of His Father”. This is not so in the fullness of “the inheritance of the purchased possession”, but it is so in “earnest” or in downpayment form at this time. This is all spelled out for us here in this same book of Ephesians.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest [Greek: down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Our present crucifixion with Christ, and our present resurrection from the dead (Rom 6:1-4) are in “earnest” or down payment form only, “until the redemption of the purchased possession”, which is the actual relinquishing of this “vessel of clay” and the actual resurrection out from among the dead into spiritual bodies.

It is in that state, in spiritual bodies, that we, with Christ, experience both the beginning and the end, simply because we are in Him, and He is in us and we are in His Father. It is in Christ, that the first fruits will know what the last fruits, those in the lake of fire will know, and it is in Christ, that those in the lake of fire, will partake of the rest of the body “who first trusted in Christ”. It is in Christ, that we will be filled by those who were not the first to trust in Christ” (Eph 2:12), and it is in Christ, that all men will, “in their own order” (1Co 15:23) fill Him [Christ and those in Him] who fills all in all” (Joh 14:20 and Eph 1:23)

I hope all these verses help you to see how it is that Christ, and us in Him, will understand “in that day” how it is that Christ, and we in Christ” will know what He means when He tells us that He is “the beginning and the end”, and that in Him we will know what it means to be “as He is in this world”, and how it is that “the rest of mankind [can] live out the part of God’s word that speaks about the elect”, but without the reward which the elect will receive.

Joh 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Eph 1:22 And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

If Christ is “the beginning and the end, and if we are “as He is”, then we, too, will live by every word of God, experience that “one event to the righteous and to the wicked”, and we will understand how it is that “all things come alike to all”.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

If you still have a question about how “all things come alike to all”, please let me know.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike