We must count ourselves as dead on the cross with Christ and raised with Christ. As we do this God begins to judge the worldliness, lusts, and self-will of our personality. Our entire first nature must be counted as dead so God can get at the sin that lives in us.

This really is such a marvelous plan!

When sin entered the spirit world with the rebellion of Satan, God conceived of a material world that one day would clothe a spirit world from which all sin and rebellion had been removed. First there would be a temporary world, and finally the end product—the new heaven and earth filled with the Presence of the Righteous One, Jesus Christ.

The people of the new world, the brothers of Christ, would first be created from the dust. The dust would then serve not only as a prototype of that which is to be permanent but also as a sponge capable of absorbing evil. Remember that God does not tempt anyone to sin or cause anyone to sin. God merely knows what we will do under certain circumstances and lets nature take its course, as we say.

God has done all this with the hope that one day He can bring forth a redeemed creation into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

God is very wise, you will have to give Him that!

God sets Christ before these sin-laden human beings. God says, "You have to surrender your personality to death so I can destroy the sin that dwells in you."

Great! We have been given a life and now we have to give it back to God.

Precisely. Whatever you will not give back to God is an idol. God is your Creator. Don't forget that. He can do as He will with or without your permission. He asks your permission because He wants sons, not robots, in the future.

God is working toward the future. The Kingdom is not here yet, it is at hand. True Christianity is a hope for the future. This is why the Gospel is not to become a plan to help us achieve prosperity in the present temporary world.

You can see from the above that everything depends on our willingness to die in Christ. If we are willing to die in Christ, to put on the altar everything we are and possess, then all that is of joy and Kingdom worth will be raised in Christ and given to us for eternity.

But if we are not willing to die in Christ, then we forfeit the Kingdom of God and all possible joy. We are a slave to the present corrupt world with no faith in God, doomed to eternal misery.

As we said, God begins to judge us as soon as we count ourselves as dead. It is appointed to man once to die and after this the judgment. Every area of our life is tested by the fire of God's Holy Spirit. We are baptized with fire. The fire comes on us, body, soul, and spirit, as chastening, as judgment on our worldliness, lust, and self-will.

To be continued.