(tm) Now the race begins.
Back to The First and Second Resurrection
The world, Satan, people, our lusts, our unbelief, our self-love—all combine to move us from our position. Every day of our Christian pilgrimage, eternal death and eternal life struggle for dominion over our personality.
Our task is to stand, to allow no man to steal our crown, to labor to make our calling and election certain.
If, through the Lord’s grace and our diligence in laying hold on that grace, we overcome the world, Satan, people, our lusts, our unbelief, our self-love, we will inherit all things.
If we are overcome by the world, or Satan, or people, or our lusts, or our unbelief, or our self-love, we are in danger of having our name blotted out of the Book of Life. This is scriptural (Revelation 3:5).
We have been called to the Throne of God. It is an upward calling. The climax of our attainment, our victory, is participation in the first resurrection, the resurrection that is out from among the dead. Truly, he who overcomes inherits all things, and God is his God and he is God’s son—forever.
We must, as Paul, always be seeking to grasp that for which we have been grasped, that is, the fullness of the inheritance in Christ. Christ will divide the spoil with the strong (Isaiah 53:12).
Those who prove by their fervent pursuit of Christ to be the members of the one Body, the one true Church, the Wife of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem, God’s kings and priests, will be raised from among the dead at the time of the first resurrection—the point in history when the Lord Jesus returns to establish His righteous Kingdom on this earth.
Every other human being will be judged fairly and thoroughly. Christ will make the decision as to the eternal destiny of each, according to his works, after reviewing the record in the Book of Life.
The Lake of Fire is the maximum penalty. It is eternal separation from our Creator without hope of reprieve. Those who continue to sin and rebel against the Lord God will be cast into the Lake of Fire in their bodies, there to serve eternally as witnesses of God’s righteous judgment.
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. (Isaiah 66:22-24)