The Scriptural Means of Attaining the Goal

The Scriptural Means of Attaining the Goal; the Goal: as the Result of a Process Rather Than a Reward Assigned by Mercy and Forgiveness or Merited by Our Efforts

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3:18)

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:8)

The only means of attaining the goal of bodily resurrection to righteousness, immortality, and glory is that of entering a process of transformation—a daily dying to the adamic nature and a daily forming of Christ in us.

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inner man is renewed day by day. (II Corinthians 4:16)

We hardly can stress enough that bodily resurrection to righteousness, immortality, and glory is neither a result of forgiveness nor a reward for good conduct. Resurrection to life is the product of our interacting on a continuing basis with the Life of Jesus. Resurrection to life is a reaping of what we have sown.

There is no exception to this. Multitudes of Christians are trusting in "grace" (forgiveness) to qualify them for a resurrection into the image of Jesus’ glorious body. Yet they themselves are not entering the process of inner transformation through daily death and resurrection. Their hope of glory is vain. Can we sound the trumpet loudly enough? Their hope is not based in the Scriptures.

What about the saints of the Old Testament, or those of more recent times, who have not heard or else have not obeyed the Gospel of the Kingdom of God?

The answer to this question is simple: the righteous will be blessed with eternal life and the wicked will be punished.

As soon as we realize the goal is not eternal residence in the realm of spirits but participation in a kingdom on the earth it becomes easier to grasp the plan of God.

Each individual will be judged fairly. Those whom Christ has called to Himself are being prepared to govern saved mankind. Others who do not have this high calling will be judged in terms of their circumstances.

The wicked and rebellious will be cast into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels. One may, object, "They never heard the Gospel." True, they may never have heard the Gospel, but God is revealed in His handiwork. We can learn much about God from our environment. Also, all human beings have a conscience.

The wicked, those who defile themselves, are without excuse. Those who have sought to live righteously will be received of God. Those who have practiced wickedness will have their reward with the wicked. This is true, with specific exceptions, whether or not the individual professes belief in Christ.

God does not divide mankind into those who believe in Christ and those who do not believe in Christ but into the righteous and the wicked. Think about the parable of the wheat and the tares, for example. Those who have been called to be part of the royal priesthood will be judged by the talents they have been given.

We are not teaching there are many roads to God for that is not the case. The Lord Jesus is the only door to God. All must come through Him. He reveals Himself to some in the present world, to others in the realm of spirits, apparently.

By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; (I Peter 3:19)

No individual will be judged guilty of rejecting Jesus if the Spirit has not spoken to him concerning the Lord, because a person cannot come to Jesus except the Father draw him.

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)

If the Father does not draw someone to Jesus, how, then, can he be judged guilty of not coming to Jesus?

To state that a person in total ignorance of Jesus can be judged guilty for not coming to Jesus is nonsense.

If the Spirit presents the Lord to us, and we reject Him, we are under condemnation. There is no way to come to God except through the Lord Jesus.

The Israelites under the Law were judged by the Law.

For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (Romans 2:12)

Those who are not under the Law are not judged by the Law.

(For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed (ascribed) when there is no law. (Romans 5:13)

We are not judged on the basis of receiving Christ until we have known of Christ.

If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. (John 15:22)

If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. (John 15:24)

Evangelical theology is incorrect. It teaches that lazy, self-centered "believers" will be carried to Paradise because they have acknowledged the facts concerning Jesus’ death and resurrection. It maintains also that the Jew of the Holocaust, laboring in the Torah, who would die before he would commit adultery but to whom Christ never was presented, will be tormented in the unquenchable fire throughout eternity.

The evangelical concept is this: the Protestant Christian who stood guard in the concentration camp will walk with Jesus in the white robe of righteousness because of a statement of belief, although he never presented his body a living sacrifice to God, never forsook the world, never took up his cross, never followed the Lord to the death of self-love.

The guard disobeyed Christ at every point, but because his theology was correct the Lord welcomed him to the throne of glory, crying out, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" This is neither scriptural nor reasonable. It is absolute nonsense. But it passes today in Christian churches for the truth of God.

How long will Christians persist in such manifest unrighteousness?

The Jew who has walked in the light he has, behaving righteously, telling the truth, showing mercy to the poor, kindness to the widow and orphan in the fear of God, will not lose his reward. He has done the works of God. When the Spirit of God reveals Jesus to him he must continue to do the work of God by accepting his Christ.

The Gentile who has professed Christ but who does not practice righteousness, does not tell the truth, does not show mercy to the poor, kindness to the widow and orphan in the fear of God, will not be received of God or His Christ. He is a wicked person and will be cast into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Listen to what a Christian Jew states:

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)

As we have stated, the world is not divided into Christians and non-Christians but into the righteous and the wicked.

But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. (Acts 10:35)

God revealed His expectations regarding human beings in the following words:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to practice righteousness, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8)

The above is one of the central commandments of all Scripture.

Many Jews throughout history have walked in this light and God has blessed them. Many Jews have not kept God’s word, and they are not the glory of Abraham.

Many Gentiles throughout history have behaved according to Micah 6:8 although they may not have been acquainted with the Scriptures. Other Gentiles have behaved wickedly, and some of them have been professing Christians.

Every human being will reap what he or she sows.

In the case of those called to be part of the royal priesthood under the new covenant, the grace of God begins its work of correcting our behavior by directing us to die to our adamic nature and to receive on a daily basis the resurrection Life of Christ.

The resurrection to bodily righteousness, immortality, and glory must be attained by the new-covenant priesthood in this manner. Resurrection to glory is not a gift of "grace," it is a product of our interaction with the Lord Jesus.

It is not that we experience bodily resurrection in increments. However, our inner man is experiencing increments of resurrection life. If such transformation has met the Lord’s standard, when He comes our body will be raised (or changed) into glory.

If there has not been an adequate transformation of the inner nature there will be no bodily glorification. There will be no house from Heaven, no white robe to glorify the flesh and bones of the deceased believer. He has sown to the flesh and will reap corruption, not eternal life.

The episode of Noah’s Ark illustrates the doctrine of bodily righteousness, immortality, and glory being the result of a process rather than a reward assigned by mercy or merited by our efforts. God found Noah righteous and warned him of the coming flood. Also, God gave Noah directions for building a ship. The warning and the directions were examples of grace given under a former covenant.

Noah was not saved by the warning. Noah was not saved by the directions. Noah was not saved by Divine mercy. Noah’s preservation from drowning was not a reward he merited by his behavior (except in a secondary sense). Noah was saved by the Ark. Noah’s salvation was a product of his Divinely directed behavior.

The same is true today. We shall not attain immortality and glory by Divine mercy. We shall not be given the first resurrection as a reward for our efforts. We shall attain righteousness, immortality, and glory only as we build what God has commanded. It is the "ark" that has been constructed that will clothe us in glory in the Day of the Lord; not our doctrine, not our statements of faith, but what we have constructed according to the directions God has given us.

The current doctrine stating that our profession of faith saves us apart from a change of our behavior is unscriptural.

God has told us to put our fallen nature to death and seek the eternal life in Christ. God has commanded us to present our mortal body a living sacrifice and to live by the Spirit of God. We can call Jesus, Lord as much as we want. But if we do not present our body a living sacrifice, if we do not count ourselves dead to the world, if we do not take up our cross and follow the Lord each day, we will reap corruption in the Day of the Lord.

Noah was not saved by assenting to what God had stated but by building the Ark. We are not saved by assenting to what Jesus has said but by submitting to the crucifixion our natural man and abiding in Jesus every moment of every day.