Reflections on 1 Corinthians 1:7–9
“Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end… God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:7–9, NIV)
The word Paul uses for Christ being “revealed” is apokalypsis: an uncovering, a laying bare, a disclosure of truth given to the soul by God Himself. We usually read this verse only of Christ’s return. But Paul uses this same word for what happened to him on the Damascus road: God was pleased “to reveal his Son in me” (Galatians 1:16).
So this verse speaks of the revealing of Christ in us. The gifts of heaven make us eager to see Christ revealed in our own lives, as we are returned to His image. His people will stand revealing the image of Christ; He will reveal Himself in us. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
And that is exactly what prepares us for the other revealing. “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). So it is both: Christ revealed in us now is what prepares us for Christ revealed to us at His coming.
This is the promise we can count on. Paul says God Himself “will keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is what all heaven has been working toward since the fall of humanity: to be able to present us faultless on that day when Christ comes to take us all home. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 24).
The work has been done. The victory has been won. We want to know Him; we want to be there. All the animosity, all the double-mindedness that sin put into us, that we were born with, will be removed. We will stand fully restored in the image of Christ, complete, faultless, and ready to know God as He is. Phillips puts it simply: “when his day comes you need fear no condemnation.”
And our place will be high. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne” (Revelation 3:21). I believe we are being fitted to stand in our place just under Christ, the place Lucifer fell from, right next to the throne of God. We will be able to stand there because we will know Him as He is and what He has done in us. The restoration, the choices we have made, who we have become: these fit us for the positions we will fill.
Why can we be so sure? Because “God is faithful.” He is the one who called us into fellowship with His Son. The Father is calling us to come to Him, and there is only Love and healing in His call, no condemnation. He longs for us to be healed, made happy and healthy, and He will not stop until the work is done.
