Now we know we will die physically whether or not we live according to our sinful nature. Obviously Paul was not referring to physical death, in Romans 8:13. Well then, what death was Paul speaking of? He had just got through saying if the Spirit of God is in us, our mortal body will be made alive in the Day of the Lord. Therefore when Paul said if we live according to our sinful nature we will die he meant we will lose the Spirit of God and our body will not be made alive by the Spirit in the Day of the Lord. It will remain dead in sin.

If we do not sow to the Spirit we will not reap eternal life in the Day of the Lord but will reap corruption in our body. As Paul said, at the Judgment Seat we will receive both the good and the bad we have practiced. If the bad outweighs the good we are in serious trouble. We can see from this how far off our preaching is today. It is not at all scriptural!

When we think about the desirability of attaining the resurrection that will bring life and righteousness to our mortal body, we can understand readily why Paul had set attaining the resurrection from the dead as the goal of his Christian life.

The other night in church I asked a young man studying for the ministry if he had ever heard one of his professors teach concerning Paul's desire to attain the resurrection from the dead. He said he had not.

Have you ever heard a sermon on attaining the resurrection from the dead?

Isn't it remarkable that Paul set forth attaining the resurrection from the dead as being the goal toward which he was pressing and yet we have never heard one sermon that emphasized the desirability of attaining the resurrection from the dead? We hear rapture rapture rapture but never attaining the resurrection from the dead. This is weird! To Paul the resurrection from the dead was the prime consideration, his main goal and hope. To us it is unknown. The departure from the Scriptures is truly awesome!

The reason is, the doctrine of the resurrection has been lost to the Christian churches. We think both the doctrine of eternal judgment and the doctrine of the resurrection are being restored in our day. We do not have a new revelation, we are just preaching what the Bible has always said.

The interesting thing is, the writer of Hebrews, in the sixth chapter, describes the doctrines of the resurrection and of eternal judgment as being elementary principles of the Gospel. Can you imagine? We have never heard of these and they are elementary! The writer of Hebrews says let us leave this kindergarten stuff and talk about Melchisedek. Let us get into some of the meat of the Word.

No, I am not really "hard" in saying if you do not serve Christ you are going to suffer a terrifying Day of Resurrection. Rather I am scriptural. The American believers need to hear the truth. The gate to eternal life is small and the way is narrow and pressured. It is a rugged path. The righteous are saved with difficulty.

To be continued.