The wise believer is not seeking merely to be raised from the dead, for all human beings will be raised from the dead. The wise believer is seeking to attain eternal Life—the Life that is in Christ and is Christ. If he has not attained life, but has been overcome by sin and self-will, to be raised from the dead will be to have his nakedness revealed.

Christ came into the world so we may have abundant eternal life in spirit, in soul, and in body. First Christ frees us from condemnation. After that He leads us, through the Spirit of God, into the steps that enable us to be changed from our old personality into a new personality. It is the new personality that enters the Kingdom of God and is the Kingdom of God.

The new personality is filled with eternal life. Therefore God is able to extend the inner spiritual life into the dead flesh, within which it was formed, and cause the dead house to live!

Our mortal body will be made alive by God's Spirit who already is dwelling in us (Romans 8:11).

If God's Spirit is not dwelling in us, if there is no eternal life and righteousness in our inner man, how then can God extend His life into our flesh? It is not God's intention to clothe an untransformed inner man with a body that is all Divine Life and power.

If we, after having received Christ as our Savior, walk in the thoughts and appetites of the flesh, we slay our own resurrection unto life (Romans 8:13). We have not attained the inner spiritual resurrection that—in the Day of Christ—makes possible the physical resurrection.

Either we are attaining the resurrection to life or else we are sowing to the flesh and will reap a harvest of death. If we live after the ways of the flesh we will die.

The redemption of the physical body is very important in the plan of salvation. The redemption of the body is Paul's goal (Romans 8:23).

But as significant as it is, the redeeming and glorifying of the mortal body does not approach in importance and priority the perfecting of the spirits of God's kings and priests. It is that group of perfected spirits that make up the heavenly Zion, the Kingdom of God (Hebrews 12:23).

The spiritually immature, self-centered believers who are waiting for a "rapture" are not in harmony with the laws of the Kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus has no intention of clothing fleshly believers, undeveloped, self- seeking spirits, with the power and life of the first resurrection from the dead.

It is not a case of our earning or our deserving the resurrection to life. The issue is one of our attaining life (Philippians 3:11). God in His mercy has made it possible for us, through the Lord Jesus Christ, to overcome the cause of death and to regain what Adam and Eve forfeited through their immaturity and self-centeredness.

Modern Christian teaching is asking God to change what He Is. By hoping to gain the blessing of God apart from righteous living we are seeking to change God. It is not only mercy we are requesting, it is a changing of the Nature and standards of the heavenly, of the Divine.

Modern civilization is like that. As the theory of democracy evolves in practice, people are able to overturn more of the laws that govern the conduct of men. Instead of bringing peace and joy to us, the result of removing laws is lawlessness and anarchy.

To be continued.