Why Resurrection Is Our Goal
Why Resurrection Is Our Goal
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:2,3)
God's Character never changes. It has remained the same from ages past. God's Character is revealed in His eternal moral laws.
To worship anyone except the one true God is against God's moral law. So are hatred of other people; unforgiveness; adultery; disobeying God and Christ.
Behaviors such as these always are sinful.
Adam and Eve were judged by God's eternal laws. So were Noah and Abraham—laws written in their conscience.
God wrote down a summary of His eternal laws and gave it to Moses to give to the people of Israel.
Then Christ came, which caused confusion. Are we obligated to keep the laws of Moses? Are there any laws that govern the Christian, other than love (which is not a very effective law).
Christ and His Apostles gave us commands. Are these the laws that govern Christians?
Someone presented the unscriptural idea that we are under a new dispensation, a dispensation of "grace." Exactly how this is supposed to work I am not entirely certain. How "grace" is related to the new covenant I do not know.
The new covenant is the eternal moral laws of God written in our mind and heart. Does this mean we are supposed to keep them, or not?
We are commanded to believe in Christ but we are not commanded to obey Christ. What sense does that make?
When is "grace" lifted, or will it always be true that we are not accountable if we transgress one of God's moral laws?
Does the Divine redemption include only forgiveness, or is deliverance from moral transgressions part of our salvation?
Has God changed? Are His moral laws no longer to be considered? Can God have fellowship with people who love the spirit of the world; who yield to the urges to sin that dwell in the members of their body; who follow their own desires instead of obeying Christ.
In my opinion, God's moral laws always are in force. What has changed is the manner in which they are enforced.
Under the regime of Moses, the Divine Laws were written down and taught in the synagogue. The Israelis were supposed to learn them and do their best to obey them. For those who sinned in ignorance, animal sacrifices were used to make an atonement. There was no provision for the Israeli who sinned knowingly and defiantly.
The same moral laws are included, although greatly expanded, under the new covenant. For example, the Sabbath commandment has been expanded into the "rest of God," in which we cease altogether from our own works every day of every week, and seek the mind of Jesus in every circumstance.
How, then, are the Laws of God applied to the Christian?
Perhaps all of the lesser laws depend upon the first law. The first law of the new covenant is that we present our body a living sacrifice and learn to live by continually seeking the mind of Christ. Meanwhile we are to obey the commands set forth in the New Testament, always praying to Christ continually for wisdom and strength to serve Christ in these commands.
The following passage is the sort of guidance we find in the New Testament.
You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. (I Thessalonians 1:6,7)
If we are willing to present our body a living sacrifice, and seek continually to live in the Presence of Christ, we will become aware of His personal commands to us. Then we are to obey them promptly, completely, and as cheerfully as we can. To not do so is to break God's moral law. To commit sin.
Now we have directions from two sources. First, from the Bible. Second, from the Lord Himself. Remember, whether from the Bible or from our personal walk with Jesus, we always are to ask the Lord for wisdom and strength so the command is obeyed in the manner God desires.
If we just are seeking to obey the commands in our own strength, and not by looking to Jesus for wisdom and strength, we are not obeying by faith but by works. That is the difference between faith and works.
When we obey Christ in every circumstance, and at all times, the body and blood of Christ are given to us in the spirit world to strengthen, encourage, and guide us. Christ's body and blood are our resurrection life.
Each moral victory we gain through the assistance of Christ is written in our mind and heart and becomes part of our character. Thus we are created in the image of God.
Meanwhile, as we pursue this path of transformation, the blood of Christ forgives our sins of which we are not aware. In the "rest of God" it is line upon line, commandment upon commandment, until we are perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Obedience to Christ brings eternal life. Sin brings death, that is, separation from God. All sin belongs in the Lake of Fire, which is the second death, the ultimate death. The first death, physical death, is of little consequence in the Kingdom of God because it does not change us into God's image.
We have authority over the second death, while we are obeying God's moral laws, and cannot be harmed by it.
When we begin walking in the way of righteousness our inner nature is sinful. As we choose to live in victory over the sins the Spirit of God points out to us, Christ keeps replacing a part of our inner nature with His own Nature, which is the image of God.
When the program has been completed, we will be in the image of Christ, as Paul promised in the Book of Romans.
Now consider: when you are faithfully pursuing the path that will lead you to the image of Christ, your inner nature is righteous but your body is dead because of the sin that is living in it.
And if Christ [is] in you, the body, indeed, [is] dead because of sin, and the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness, (Romans 8:10—YLT)
The fact that Christ is being formed in you means that there is Divine righteousness in your inner nature. However, your physical body is dead because there are spirits of sin that dwell in the members of your body.
In what way is our physical body dead? The sinful urges that dwell in it are not acceptable to God. Any part of the Divine creation that is not acceptable to God is "dead" because it is cut off from Eternal Divine Life, the Life that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Resurrection and the Life.
Your physical body is spiritually dead. This will be manifest in a few years as you begin to age and lose your vitality. At some point the illusion of life will leave your body and death will reveal itself.
"Resurrection," the impartation of Divine Life, the Life of Christ, always follows obedience to the eternal moral Laws of God. Death, separation from God's Life, always follows sin, that is, disobeying God's laws.
The guilt that ordinarily would result from our sinful actions will be suspended while we are undergoing the transformation into the image of Christ. This is possible because the blood of the atonement made by the Lord Jesus has been sprinkled on us.
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11)
I think it is interesting that the Apostle Paul set forth his goal (and our goal) so clearly, but I have never heard a preacher say that resurrection is our goal as Christians. Have you?
Yet, the Apostle Paul said we should follow his example.
All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Philippians 3:15,16)
Why then, are Paul's words ignored?
The answer is, we American Christians are so surfeited with material goods that we cannot believe Paul meant what he said. We know the words are in the Bible; but they tell of a Christian experience that is radically different from merely "accepting Christ."
For two thousand years we Christians have made going to Heaven when we die as our goal. Why has God not sent someone to inform us that residence in Heaven is not our goal? Maybe He has and I just do know about it.
I think the reason is that God knew we were not prepared to know about resurrection. As long as we viewed Heaven as a righteous, holy, place and assumed we would be righteous and holy when we got there, then why trouble the believers about something they cannot as yet do anything about.
Hosea prophesied the following:
After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. (Hosea 6:2)
What does that mean?
I believe it means that after two thousand years, God will open the doors of our prison and we will go free.
Think of us as being locked in a prison. Think of Jesus' actions on the cross of Calvary to be that of a lawyer bringing papers to the warden of a prison. The papers stated clearly that the time for our confinement is finished.
Legally we are free to go.
But the warden shakes his head. "They are my prisoners and they are not going to leave this prison."
For two thousand years we have been in the prison of worldliness, the prison of sinful urges of the members of our body, and the prison of rebellion against God and Christ. Now, after two thousand years, the Lord Jesus Christ has appeared with the final work of redemption. The prison door is open. We have been set free by the Judge of Heaven.
All the warden can do is try to deceive us. "You will remain in my custody," he tells us. "As long as you are living on the earth, you are my prisoner."
Perhaps he is saying something similar to the believers who have died and are in the spirit world. Perhaps he is saying, "Just because you are a human being you have to disobey God and Christ. You have to do what is in your mind and heart to do. Never mind what God wants you to do."
It is not at all impossible that such an attempt to deceive the people who are in the spirit world actually is taking place.
Remember, we are approaching the climax of redemption, and "They (the faithful saints who have died and now are in the spirit world) cannot be made perfect without us." According to this, redemption continues after death for those who have served God faithfully.
Since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:40)
Perhaps the perfection mentioned here takes place as the Lord Jesus imparts resurrection Life to those who come with Him and to those of us who are alive on the earth at that time.
Remember also that Satan in the last days is going to be overcome by those who are trusting in the blood of the Lamb; whose life and words conform to the Scripture; and who serve Christ to the point of death. This may be equally true for those who have died and are in the spirit world and those who still are living on the earth.
What is the final step of redemption? Resurrection! That is why resurrection is stated as the goal of the Apostle Paul.
Up to the present time we have looked forward to going to Heaven when we die. Why? Anyone who has lived for a season on the earth knows the answer to this.
The earth has not been designed to make us happy. Did you know that? The purpose of life on earth is to teach us about God; and also to select those whom God will train to be rulers in the ages to come.
Consequently, for most of us life is hard. That is why we are exhorted to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The only way in which we can make life on earth pleasant is to betray God and other people.
How is life on earth hard? Death, sickness, sorrow, tragedy, mourning, crying, pain, worry, disappointments, frustration, loneliness, war, difficulties with our children, poverty, and other hard experiences.
It is no wonder that the believers look forward to the absence of the hardships we experience during our lifetime on the earth. But if it were not for the hard experiences, the world would be one colossal sexual orgy. People would not learn about God. No leaders would be selected and trained for the worlds to come.
Then too, as C. S. Lewis said concerning his wife's cancer, I think it was, "We have no assurance from the Bible that there is no cancer in Heaven."
Next Part We are just hoping for the best!