As we covered last week, the main reason the Lord did not take His authority over the earth immediately after His resurrection was to seek a bride. The wife of the first Adam disobeyed the Lord and submitted to the devil, but the wife of “the last Adam” would resist the devil and prove her love for the Lord by her obedience. At all cost, against the opposition of the entire earth and even hell itself, she would follow the Lord.

          This entire age since the resurrection of Jesus has been rightly called “the church age” or “the age of the bride.” The Lord had the legal authority to take His authority over the earth right after He had made atonement for it, but He did not for our sakes, so that we would have the opportunity to become sons and daughters of God, joint heirs with Christ.

          There is another reason He has not taken His authority yet—rebellion against God and all of its consequences have to be fully revealed. If Jesus had taken His authority in the first century, there might forever be some who would question whether man could have ever been able to run this world without God. At the end of this age, that question will be forever settled. All of creation will have a clear witness that it is the ultimate folly to think that we can run this world without God, and that rebellion against Him will always lead to the most terrible consequences. At the end of this age, the troubles that man creates for himself and the entire earth will be at the point where all would be completely lost if God did not intervene.

          The root cause of every human problem is man trying to run this world without God. The answer to every human problem is to turn back to God. The root cause of almost every personal problem is found in trying to do things without God. The answer to them is to turn to the Lord. I say “almost” because there are persecutions and other tests that we may endure that are not the result of our turning from God, but actually the result of our obedience to Him. Nevertheless, these are a glory and honor to the saints, and our resolve to be obedient regardless of the consequences will be forever remembered before the Lord.

          Trials that are the result of following Christ are our greatest opportunities and are evidence that we have matured to the place where we are given this great honor. That is why after the apostles had been beaten they went out rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for the name of the Lord.

          When we are persecuted or treated unfairly for our faith, we may not think of it as a great honor, but that is only if we are still too earthly-minded and too concerned about what people think of us. When our attention is where it should be, on obeying God and on what He thinks of us, then we too will rejoice as the apostles did when we are persecuted. Peace and even joy in our persecutions are the most basic evidences of maturity in Christ and the signs of a true disciple.