God the Patient Divine Workman Perfecting His Saints

"He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God." Paul penetrates the divine mysteries in these words. Life is not blind accident but the deliberate operation of the great Workman, and perceiving Elohim's purpose becomes our shield against sorrow, doubt, despondency, and fear.

What is that "self-same thing" for which God has wrought us? Paul distinguishes three conditions of the human spirit: dwelling in the earthly body, stripped of it, and "clothed with the house which is from heaven." This third and highest state—the completion of our humanity in a perfect spirit dwelling in a glorified body—is the very aim of divine love in all its dealings with us.

The Divine Artificer employs a term conveying continuous, effortful work, ergazomai (to labor), as if against resistance. Like a sculptor with obdurate marble or a metallurgist with rough ore, Adonai works with patient, loving hands. He touches the material here a little and there a little, undiscouraged when encountering black veins in white stone or when hard material dulls His chisels.

Understand this: God cannot make you fit for heaven by a simple act of will. He can create a world thus, not a saint. He cannot say, "Let there be holiness," and it materializes. Sanctification demands all His energies throughout your lifetime. Moreover, Elohim cannot grant that glorified body unless your spirit becomes Christlike—it corresponds necessarily to your inward spiritual being. Only a perfect spirit can dwell in a perfect body, fitting you for glory or shame at the final resurrection.