Gaining eternal life means we have overcome the forces of spiritual death that are striving against us. Participation in the first resurrection is the result of pressing forward into the eternal Life that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

We can see from the above that the standard of true Christianity is quite different from that practiced in our country. We are in a condition of apostasy. Every believer who hopes to be raised by the Lord when He returns must today learn to live by His Life as He lives by the Father's Life.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6:57—NIV)

Feeding on Jesus means we are partaking each day of His body and blood. We partake of His body and blood each time we choose to turn away from our own desires and do what God is directing us to do. Also we must keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles that are found in the New Testament. If we do not keep these many commandments we have no hope of being raised when the Lord appears.

Only those who are living by the Life of Jesus, who are abiding in Him at all times, have a valid hope of being raised by Him when He appears. This is the message of the parable of the ten virgins, found in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of Matthew.

Amazingly, the Apostle Paul did not believe he had obtained the full knowledge of Christ, the full possession of Christ, or, consequently the resurrection from the dead. He had not as yet attained to the perfection to which he had been called by the Lord.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (Philippians 3:12—NIV)

It appears that the true Christian discipleship is one of pressing on! pressing on! pressing on! There is no retirement from the fight, from the race for eternal life.

Paul was pressing toward that to which Jesus Christ had called him. Christ had taken hold of Paul for perfection, for the resurrection to eternal life, for the full knowledge of Christ, for the full possession of Christ.

Christ has chosen each true Christian for a specific destiny. We are not to look at the mark set before other people, only the mark set before us as an individual.

All the Lord requires is that we give ourselves wholly to the pursuit of that to which we have been called. If we do this our reward shall be great in the Kingdom of God. But if we do not give ourselves wholly to the pursuit of that to which we have been called, choosing instead to be drawn away by the enticements of the world, we will not attain to the resurrection to eternal life. In this case we will not be raised when the Lord appears but must wait until the end of the Kingdom Age, at which time the dead will be raised and judged according to their works.

To be continued.