No work of Kingdom significance can commence until we die with Christ on the cross.

The Christian salvation is death and resurrection with Jesus Christ. But for two thousand years Christianity has been made a religion in which people hope to go to Heaven by believing certain things. This actually is Gnosticism, not Christianity. Here and there there have been genuine Christians, but most individuals who think of themselves as Christians are not true Christians at all but members of a manmade religion.

The longer I live the more convinced I become that the greater part of Christianity is actually the work of man and not the work of God. Jesus Christ said He would build His own Church on Himself. What we think of as Christianity was never built by Jesus Christ but by well intentioned religious people. Perhaps the issue of the difference between the Christian salvation and the Christian religion has not been raised before to any great extent, but in the days to come, as God calls Satan to account and shakes all rebellion from those whom God has called to rule with Christ, we will see the true Church separated from that which we view today as the Christian churches.

The true Christian has been crucified with Christ and now it is not he who is living but Christ. How many believers do you know who live as though they have been crucified and have risen with Christ?—whose life is Christ? These are the Christians. The remainder, and most of these are decent, God-fearing people, are members of a religion. They have not died. Therefore they have not been raised to the right hand of power.

"When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Is Christ our life? Christ becomes our life as every material prop is knocked out from under us and we are living by His body and blood. "Yet not I but Christ lives in me." We are to take this position by faith. Then the Holy Spirit will make it a reality as we cooperate with Him.

The reason Christ has not appeared as yet is that the ordained number of rulers have not been prepared. The rulers are being prepared today. They are being prepared on earth, and I suppose in the spirit realm also. I think more takes place in the spirit realm than we understand. We know God is judging both the living and the dead, and that Divine judgment consists of fiery trials that burn the sin and self-seeking out of us.

But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. (I Peter 4:5—NIV)

Our tradition states that when he dies the troubles of the Christian are over. There is little scriptural support for this. In view of the fact that the Scripture states the ministries of the Spirit will operate until we all come to the unity of the faith, to maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ, it appears likely that our moral transformation will continue whether we are living on earth or living in the spirit realm.

To be continued.