ontier state. A
person purchases a large tract of land. It is his, he has a perfect
title to it. But now he comes and looks over his purchased possession
and he finds a number of people who settled upon it. They have erected
houses and make a claim that it belongs to them, but they have no right
to it at all. Either by law or by force they are to be evicted from
the property to which they have no right. At a certain time the owner
comes and claims his ownership and casts out these people. And even so
that which the Lord has purchased and which belongs to Him and to the
sons of God with Him, His inheritance and our inheritance is possessed
up to this time by evil, God opposing powers and they have still
control of it till the hour of eviction comes. All things are indeed
put under His feet, but we see not yet all things put under Him, though
we see as a pledge that it shall be so, "Jesus who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and
honor." The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and yet the
earth is still in the grasp of that mighty being, who had shown to our
Lord the kingdoms of this world claiming them as his own and offering
the same to the Lord. The father of lies spoke the truth then, for the
kingdoms of this world are in his possession and they are still his.
He is still the god of this age, the prince of the world. The enemies
of Christ seen and unseen are not yet made His footstool, nor will they
be till the power of God does it in that mighty act of a future
redemption. Still there is the groaning of all creation, waiting for
something better to come, waiting for the deliverance from the bondage
of corruption, waiting to be brought into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. The deliverance of groaning creation takes place when
the sons of God are manifested, and that is the time of the redemption
of the purchased possession. And we also who have the first fruits of
the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the
redemption of the body. And the redemption of the body belongs to the
redemption of the purchased possession.

And how is it with the heavens? Surely here we cannot speak of some
evil powers holding possessions, and that it is necessary to redeem
that possession by power? It is exactly this which is mostly before us
in this epistle of the Heavenlies.

To some Christians this is almost impossible to gras