Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/237

 Jesus, therefore, at and after his resurrection, was a spirit a spirit being, and no longer a human being in any sense.

True, after his resurrection he had power to appear, and did appear, as a man, in order that he might teach his dis- ciples and prove to them that he was no longer dead ; but he was not a man, and was no longer controlled by human conditions, but could go and come as the wind (even when the doors were shut), and none could tell whence he came or whither he went. "So is every one that is born of the Spirit." John 3 : 8. Compare 20 : 19, 26.

From the moment of his consecration to sacrifice, at the

time of his baptism, the human had been reckoned dead

and there the new nature was reckoned begun, which was completed at the resurrection, when he reached the perfect spirit plane, L was raised a spiritual body.

Forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended to the majesty on high the plane of divine glory, K (pyramid /&). During the Gospel age he has been in glory (/), "set down with the Father on his throne," and Head over his Church on earth her director and guide. During this entire Gospel age the Church has been in process of development, dis- cipline and trial, to the intent that in the end or harvest of the age she may become his bride and joint-heir. Hence she has fellowship in his sufferings, that she may be also glorified together with him (plane ."), when the proper time comes.

The steps of the Church to glory are the same as those of her Leader and Lord, who "hath set us an example that we should walk in his footsteps" except that the Church starts from a lower plane. Our Lord, we have seen, came into the world on the plane of human perfection, N, while all we of the Adamic race are on a lower plane, R the plane of sin, imperfection and enmity against God. The first thing necessary for us, then, is to be justified, and thus

�� �