The new covenant, which is made with the Israel of God, the royal priesthood, is one of change, of transformation from the adamic nature to the new life-giving Nature of Jesus Christ. Salvation is the new creation.

Because of our past concept of salvation we may think our transformation is for the purpose of going to Heaven. It is not. We are not changed so we can go to Heaven. We are changed so we can be with Jesus Christ in God for eternity, so we can fulfill the many roles and tasks of the Kingdom.

We may ask, "If I am not changed am I still saved?" If we were to ask such a question it would reveal we still do not understand what salvation is.

It is the transformation itself that is salvation. Being saved does not mean we will be admitted to Heaven when we die. Being saved is a process that removes us from the person and ways of Satan and brings us into the Person and ways of God. We are saved from the lost condition into which Adam and Eve brought their descendants.

We are being saved each day if we are consenting to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. If we are not consenting to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit we are not being saved. If salvation is moral transformation, how can we be being saved if we are not being transformed?

Even the righteous are saved with difficulty. This is because it is hard for us to let go of our worldliness, our lusts, and our self-will. But if we do not let go of the sin that is in us we are not permitting Christ to save us.

We have to work out our salvation each day, with fear and trembling. We need to get serious with the Lord because we are entering an age of moral horrors.

Our traditions concerning mansions in Heaven and walking around forever in our golden slippers, carrying our harps, possessing backyards full of diamonds, may have sufficed for the Moses era. But since such ideas are not scriptural they will not stand under the pressures that even now are beginning to be brought upon the Church.

Probably the major shift in our thinking has to do with what Canaan represents.

The idea that Canaan is a type of Heaven, the spirit Paradise, has a long, venerable history. But if you think about it, Canaan as a type of Heaven, of the land of promise, does not make sense.

Is Heaven occupied by the enemy? Will we enter Heaven by a long, drawn-out war, entering city by city as we drive out the inhabitants?

Does the Scripture in any passage point to Heaven as our inheritance, our rest, our land of promise?

If it does not, then our fundamental understanding of the Christian salvation is incomplete and misleading.

If Heaven is not our land of promise, our inheritance, what is?

Our land of promise is the earth and its inhabitants. This is why salvation for the royal priesthood is moral change and union with God through Christ. Apart from such transformation and union we are neither competent nor eligible to serve as a ruling priest over the saved nations of the earth.

To be continued.