Judgement must begin at the house of God
Those who have a part in the first resurrection have gone through a prior judgment before being assigned positions of authority and ministry in the Kingdom of Christ. The prior judgment of God’s saints is more exacting than the standards of conduct required of the rest of mankind.
God never "winks" at the sins of His people, only at the ignorance of the nations (Acts 17:30). Jerusalem always receives of the Lord’s hand "double for all her sins" before her warfare is accomplished and her sin and rebellion pardoned (Isaiah 40:2).
As we have pointed out before, the events of the last days are taking place in the Christians now. The closer we walk with Christ, with the Lord of all judgment, the sooner the Day of the Lord is brought to pass in us.
Of all our experiences that foreshadow the Day of the Lord, none is more current than that of judgment. It is time now for judgment to begin with the house of God (I Peter 4:17). God judges both the living and the dead (I Peter 4:5).
We who are seeking the Lord with a full heart, in all fervency of spirit and desire, are drawing near to Him who is the consuming Fire. The closer we come to Him the more our sins are magnified.
As the Holy Spirit points out to us our sins of action, of word, of imagination, we are to confess them to God—and sometimes to Christian brothers or sisters as well if this seems to be the way the circumstances and the Spirit of God are leading. The fire of the Presence of Christ is holy.
Being saved "by grace" means we are accepted of God even though we are clothed in filthiness of behaviour. We are accepted of Him if, when He comes to us in the Spirit and begins to teach us His ways, we act in obedience.
To claim we are saved by grace and then to ignore the admonitions of the Holy Spirit regarding purity of conduct, stating that we have no sin because of "grace," is to walk in deception.
Those who continue to practice the uncleanness of the flesh will never inherit the Kingdom of God, whether or not they name the name of Christ (Galatians 5:21). To believe otherwise is to be deceived. If we will not judge ourselves by the Word and Spirit of God, God will judge us (I Corinthians 11:31,32).
If we are willing and obedient we will "eat the good of the land" (Isaiah 1:19). The Holy Spirit is dealing with the saints in the present hour and revealing to us our sins. Our part is to confess our sins (I John 1:7-9), obtaining forgiveness and cleansing. Then we are to submit ourselves to God and resist the devil (James 4:7).
Little by little we obtain release from the bondages of the flesh and by this means enter Christ’s Kingdom. "The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Romans 14:17).
Sometimes God must heat up the furnace "seven times more than it was wont to be heated" before our bondages are burned through (Daniel 3:19; I Peter 4:1,2).
If we examine our behaviour now, by the wisdom, power, and joy of the Holy Spirit, not in the gloom and despair of self-criticism, we will not be condemned with the world (I Corinthians 11:31,32; Romans 8:13). It is God’s will that we be made holy through our contact with the risen Christ.
Christ possesses the authority and power to tear down every point of rebellion in our life and to set us free. If we will allow Him to do that we will have our part in the first resurrection from among the dead.
Those who participate in the first resurrection from the dead can rest with Christ in the day of the great white throne judgment, while the dead are being judged from "the things that were written in the books, according to their works" (Revelation 20:12). If we overcome Satan, and are created in Divine love "we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in the world" (I John 4:17).
Finally death itself and Hell will be cast into the Lake of Fire. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Corinthians 15:26).
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)
This is the termination of the first creation. All evil and all evildoers have been destroyed. The Day of Judgment has been completed. The curtain is rising on a scene so glorious our imaginations of the present hour cannot grasp it.