The believer who is unwilling to accept the tribulations that come to him or her, who continually is looking for a way to escape unpleasantness, who refuses to carry his cross patiently, who is attempting to enjoy the world while serving Christ, cannot attain the first resurrection from the dead, the resurrection that will take place when the Lord returns.

The true Christian life is one of patient perseverance throughout the numerous tribulations by which we enter the Kingdom of God. Many and varied are the afflictions of the righteous. It is by prolonged testings and refining fires that we are prepared to be coheirs with Christ, that we are made ready for our positions of power and authority over the nations of the earth.

If we suffer we will reign. The cross and the crown go together.

The Christian is a stranger and a pilgrim in the world. He is seeking a city that has foundations. He is not of the world, of its systems of solving problems apart from God's wisdom, of its fierce desire to acquire wealth in order to become independent of the Lord's help.

The true Christian will be persecuted and will suffer in the world. But his hope is in the coming of Christ who will punish all those who have harmed the Lord's witnesses. This is the true Christian hope, the proper attitude to hold if one desires to attain the first resurrection from the dead.

And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: (II Thessalonians 1:7,8)

A third step toward arriving at the first resurrection from the dead is the forming of Christ in us.

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)

The forming of Christ in the saint is the most important aspect of the new covenant; in fact, it is the new covenant.

Everything else in Christianity is secondary to the forming of Christ in the believer. Everything else is scaffolding, a means to the forming of Christ in us.

When Christ has been formed in us, then the new covenant has been established in our personality.

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Only Christ, and that which has been wrought in Christ and is an inseparable, integral part of Christ, inherits the Kingdom of God.

Christ is the Resurrection. Christ is the Life. Christ is the Kingdom of God. As Christ is formed in us the Resurrection is formed in us. As Christ is formed in us the eternal Life from God is formed in us. As Christ is formed in us the Kingdom of God is formed in us.

The Christian who is so occupied with other matters that he is not attending to the development of the Life of Christ in him is dying. He or she is not attaining the first resurrection. He is ignoring the very resurrection that he is hoping will be presented to him at the last trumpet.

To be continued.