Book 3 of Musings The Inside Before the Outside

We cannot be resurrected to eternal life on the outside until we first have been resurrected to eternal life on the inside.

I have preached and taught on many subjects since the Lord called me to preach in 1945. I have stressed the forming of Christ in us, judgment on our sinful behavior as Christians, the eternal Temple of God, the four great types of the Bible, the Servant of the Lord, and various other topics.

During the last two or three years the resurrection of the dead has become prominent in my thinking.

In many of my writings I have pointed out that there are two major resurrections. There is the first resurrection, that which will occur when the Lord Jesus next returns. This resurrection is limited to the victorious saints, those who have prepared themselves diligently for the change from mortality to immortality.

There is the second resurrection. This is the general resurrection of mankind. It will take place at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age. Everyone will participate in the second resurrection except the victorious saints who were raised by the Lord Jesus when He came at the beginning of the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

I don't know how many Bible teachers are warning the believers that they will not be raised from the dead when the Lord appears unless they, like the Apostle Paul, have pressed forward to this event. The two resurrections may not be commonly understood in the present hour; but my guess is that before too long, numerous godly pastors and teachers will be heralding this extremely important understanding.

What is the difference between a Christian who is raised in the first resurrection, and a Christian who is raised in the second resurrection along with the remainder of mankind? The difference is, the Christian who is raised in the first resurrection attained to this resurrection by laying all else aside in order to gain Christ.

And so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3:11)

Since it is quite clear, from the context of the above verse, that it expresses the central goal of Paul's Christian life, it is remarkable that it is not preached more than it is. Would you agree with me on this? In fact, I don't think I ever have heard even one sermon devoted to attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

We know from the Lord's words that all who are in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth, whether they like it or not, at the general resurrection of the dead. The fact that Paul was striving so hard to attain to the resurrection indicates indisputably, I believe, that Paul is referring to the special priestly resurrection that comes at the onset of the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

What does Paul say about attaining to the resurrection from the dead?

Paul says we must lay aside all else in our life, counting everything except the gaining of Christ as garbage. How many Christians do you know who are doing this? Yet, Paul advises us to be thus minded.

Paul says we must live in the power of Christ's resurrection now-today. Can you see the reasoning behind this? Our body cannot be raised and made immortal until first our inward man has been filled with resurrection life.

Paul says we must share the sufferings of Christ.

Where do sufferings fit in the picture? As we suffer our old nature is crucified. The more we are brought down in the death of the cross, the more God must fill our inward nature with Christ's resurrection life so we may proceed on our way. Has this happened to you? Are you learning to live by His Life? Only those who truly can say "Christ is my life" are eligible to return with Him when He appears, and pick up their body from its place of interment.

Paul says we must press toward the mark, the mark of the resurrection to eternal life.

The saints who are qualified to appear with Christ will not be judged at that time. They have been judged previously. This makes a great deal of sense, doesn't it. Since they will be judging the world in the Battle of Armageddon, they themselves must first be judged.

Be honest now. Referring to the third chapter of the Book of Philippians:

How many Christians that you know count everything that was profitable to them as loss for Christ?

How many consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ?

How many have lost all things, considering them all rubbish, that they may gain Christ?

How many want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection above all else?

How many want to become like Him in His death that they may attain to the resurrection from the dead?

How many are forgetting what is behind and are straining toward what is ahead?

Paul says all of us who are mature should take such a view of things.

To be qualified to be raised when the Lord appears we must take such a view of things.

But how many American Christians meet these criteria? I was taught by the Navigators when I was first saved to go by the Word of God. The Word of God tells me that those who meet the above criteria are those who are attaining to the resurrection (obviously the first resurrection) from the dead.

Maybe there are only a few hundred American believers who are prepared to be raised from the dead when Jesus appears. Perhaps it will be a Gideon's army. It wouldn't be the first time God worked with a small part of His people.

I will tell you a story. I have reason to believe this actually happened. We have to be careful when we repeat Christian anecdotes because most of them were concocted by evangelists who are careless with the truth.

A Christian author went to his publisher and said he wanted to write a book about God. The publisher responded by saying people won't buy it if it is not about how their life is going to be improved in some manner.

Can you imagine such a thing?

A study of Church history will reveal that this has not always been the case. It is America of the twenty-first century that is producing such non-Christians.

I know there are many pastors and congregations that have not bowed the knee to Baal. May the Lord bless them richly. But it appears they are becoming increasingly scarce as one minister copies another in an effort to build a larger congregation.

Here is another bit of wisdom I heard recently. When we focus on the ministry and on the people we die spiritually. This assuredly is a fact. We are to keep looking to Jesus. He builds His own churches.

I like to think of Moses, the pastor of millions of people, spending his time in the Holy of Holies, speaking to God. I don't believe Moses would have been as effective if he was running from one meeting to another with his bag of falafels for lunch on the run.

O to keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus as He fills us today with resurrection life in our inward nature, in anticipation of the day when He clothes our resurrected inward nature with an immortal body!

I think an immortal body is worth pursuing. How about you. This present earth would not be such a bad place to live if we had a body like Jesus, would it? Maybe what we need is a change in us rather than a change in our location.

How about that!

Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. (Rev 20:6)