First Phase: Yehovah came to dwell in the man, Jesus His anointed one, such that God’s fullness dwelt in him bodily (Colossians 2:9). God was in His anointed one reconciling humanity to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). In the New Testament, this phase is mentioned in all four gospels.
Second Phase: Yehovah is now in the world dwelling in His called-out Assembly, the body of His anointed one and Temple of God. And through the called-out Assembly is continuing His word of reconciliation.
This phase is the main focus of the section from Acts to Jude. Since this section of scripture has to do with the present time, it is important for us to understand it correctly, for any error here will have serious spiritual consequences. Yehovah now dwells in His called-out Assembly “bodily” in much the same way He dwelled in His anointed one [now the head of the called-out Assembly] when His anointed on was on earth. The called-out Assembly’s message to the world is “be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20, 81; Romans 5:10), just as His anointed one came in order to “bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18)
The body of the Messiah [God’s anointed one] is now in the world in the way that the head, Jesus the Messiah [God’s anointed one], was in the world. In other words, the called-out Assembly is now as God anointed one in the world, not only as a community or a spiritual organism but also as individuals. The body of each individual believer who has now received the Spirit of God is now the temple of the Holy Spirit, that is, the temple of God, in basically the same way the Jesus was the temple of God, except for the crucial difference that whereas Jesus attained absolute perfection through Yehovah’s indwelling, we have not [yet] attained to the “stature of the Messiah [God’s anointed one]. Even so, we can experience the Messiah in ourselves and not just in some abstract intellectual way. Hence Paul is able to say, “For me is to live is in God’s anointed one”, it is for this reason that “to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21) another translation of Philippians 1:21: 21 for me to live is the Messiah [his life in me], and to die is gain [the gain of the glory for eternity].
Third Phase: Yehovah will return to earth in His anointed one Yehovah’s anointed one (“the anointed one of God” Luke 9:20) and Yehovah’s called-out Assembly (the called-out Assembly of God,” Acts 20:28) will rule the earth.
All who refuse to be reconciled with God will be judged. This third phase, the final phase of the present age, is the focus of the book of Revelation, but also of a few chapters of the synoptic gospels and some passages in the New Testament letters, notably 2 Thessalonians.
In that phase, God’s anointed one will “subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:2), fulfilling the purpose of the third phase of God’s plan of salvation in His anointed one [Jesus]. The transformation of the body mentioned in this verse is the defeat of death and mortality. In putting on immortality, the bodies of the redeemed will be transformed into glorious and incorruptible bodies like that of God’s anointed one [Messiah]. The subject of all things to God's anointed one will include the defeat of death and its elimination from redeemed creation.
There is also the subjection of spiritual powers hostile to God which are called “principalities and power [KJV] or “rulers and authorities” [ESV]: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him. We see something similar in the following passage:
It has been testified somewhere (vis. Psalm 8:4-6), “What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor; putting everything in subjection under his (man’s) feet. Now in putting everything subject to him, He left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not see everything subject to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:6-9)
God’s eternal purpose for creation includes putting all things in subjection to man’s feet. After, Adam’s fall [rebellion] Yehovah carried out His eternal Plan through the redemption that is in the “man, His anointed one Jesus,” the only mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5).
Job is puzzled by the value that Yehovah attaches to man and the attention that He gives him (“What is man, that you make so much of him, and YOU SET YOUR HEART ON HIM,” (Job 7:17). God’s care for man is seen in His attention “before the foundation of the ages” to “put all things under his feet,” that is, all things subject to man. It is man – preeminently Jesus God’s anointed one, seated at the Father’s right hand – who will rule over all God’s creation as His representative and plenipotentiary!
1 Corinthians 15: 24-27: Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For, he must reign, until he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For, He has put all things under his feet. But when He says all things are put under him, it is manifest that He is excepted, who did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him that put all things under him that God may be all in all.
Ephesians 1:18-23: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is THE EXCEEDING GREATNESS OF HIS POWER TO US-WARD WHO BELIEVE ACCORDING TO THE WORKING OF HIS MIGHTY POWER, which He wrought in His anointed one, when He raised him from the dead, and set him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come: And has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the called-out Assembly, which is his body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all.
This excerpt is taken from Eric Chang’s book: The Only Perfect Man: The Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ – pages 263-266.
I have taken the liberty to edit what Eric Chang has written and hopefully done so faithful to what Eric wanted everyone to understand. This book can be purchased on Amazon.
I highly recommend that you add this book to your library. It reveals many vital important truths that all disciples of the lord Messiah Jesus should be familiar with!
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