These are iron laws of the Kingdom of God and they are not tempered in any manner by grace, mercy, or God's love. You will trifle with these facts at your peril.

Imagine the Day of the Lord, the Day of Resurrection. Your body has been reassembled and then animated with spiritual life, the life by which angels live.

You are standing beside your grave, not knowing what to expect.

The Lord Jesus comes with your body from Heaven.

Perhaps you will see some believers clothed with great mountains of fire and glory, prepared to shine as the stars forever so they may guide people to the rest of God.

With what will you be clothed in that moment?

If you have done that which is good you will be clothed with a body of life fashioned according to your conduct on earth. If you have suffered you will have in your new body the capacity to govern nations of people.

If you have done that which is evil you will experience weakness and darkness. The hold of sin will be strong upon you. You will not be happy at the thought of being close to the blazing light of Jesus, the Divine fire of God.

People will turn away from you in disgust. You will slink away to the habitations of those with personalities like yours.

What I am describing is real. It will happen some day to you. You cannot be certain that the sun will rise tomorrow morning. But one thing you do know: the moment will come when you stand before Jesus Christ to answer for your conduct on the earth.

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (John 5:28,29)

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)

Perhaps many Christians in the United States will become aware that we have misunderstood the role of God's grace and will turn to God and begin to bring forth works in keeping with their repentance. But remember, one runs into trouble if he attempts to tell a child he no longer is going to be given everything he wants and must now be subject to the denial of his desires and other discipline. You will have a howling tyrant on your hands.

No doubt the truth that we are not as secure as we thought we were will unsettle multitudes of believers.

Perhaps God in His goodness will send the Spirit of repentance on us so that we can successfully manage the idea that the only reliable evidence of our salvation is a new creation that works the righteous works of God. To be sure, interesting developments are ahead of us.

But no matter what others do, why don't you go to the Bible and see what it says about the Lord rewarding every one of us according to our works. If you are persuaded that indeed we shall be rewarded according to our works, Christian or not, then go to the throne of grace and tell God that from now on you want to grow in righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God.

To be continued.