The soul fights to the end to preserve its existence, its individuality. The tenacity of the human soul is remarkable, revealing the strength God has placed in the first creation.

The soul is inclined to worship idols. The process of removing the idols from us is painful. Every one of them must be put beneath our feet. Only Christ and the Father are to govern man. Man has been created to rule all the works of God's hands, not to be ruled by lesser creatures, or by human relationships, or by things or circumstances. We have been commanded to worship and serve the Lord our God. Every idol in us must be brought to the fire of God so it may be consumed, destroyed, driven from our personality.

One of the most painful of all experiences is the purifying of human relationships. All of us understand that human relationships are temporary at best. We know the day will come when we shall die and the human ties will be broken. God is seeking those who, while they yet are alive on earth, will give to God all their relationships. God then will re-create in Christ each relationship such that the believer is able to move forward to the fullness of the transformation the Lord desires.

Only the strongest of the saints are able to follow the Lord Jesus through the re-creation of relationships. It is while we are experiencing the transformation of our relationships that we become most acutely aware that we indeed are dying and becoming an eternal part of Christ.

It is not possible for us to suddenly complete the process of transformation by removing all the experiences of our soul and embracing all the experiences of the new man of the heart. Rather, we must follow the Holy Spirit through the program of re-creation. Our task is to present our body a living sacrifice. The task of the Spirit is to take the offering and then lead us to Christ.

By the expression "lead us to Christ" we do not mean in any external sense, such as going to Heaven where Christ is in the present hour. Rather we mean that the Holy Spirit brings us into union with Christ, into marriage with Him. Christ never marries the adamic soul. Christ enters union only with that which has been born of Himself, with the new man who has been born in us.

It is not enough that we come to Christ as to an external person. Not at all. Rather it is true that we are being created an eternal part of Him. We are being created in Christ as part of that one new Man, that one new Creation who is Christ.

It is appointed to each man, each son of Adam, to die; and after death comes judgment.

First, Adam dies.

Second, Adam is raised from the dead.

Third, Adam is judged according to his works.

Fourth, Adam passes either into punishment or into re-creation and resurrection unto life.

To be continued.