Because we are in a fight to lay hold on eternal life we are not to let sin govern our actions. If we will patiently do all New Testament commands, God will do His part and give us victory over the sin that always is waiting to control us. This is how we attain to the resurrection to eternal life in the body.

But if we do not do what the New Testament commands we will not gain victory over our sinful impulses. In this case, we will be as the foolish virgins. When the Lord returns He will not know us. The door will be shut in our face.

Be sure you understand what I have just written. Much error is being taught in our day. The believers in Christian churches are not, in numerous instances, correctly oriented to the plan of salvation, supposing any moment they are going to be carried off to Heaven so they won't suffer. This is deception!

Let's turn now to a further discussion of how we attain to the resurrection into eternal life in the body.

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10—NIV)

Think carefully about this statement. All human bodies are spiritually dead because of the sin that dwells in them. This is true for the saved as well as the unsaved.

There is something different about the saved. Although their body is dead because of the sin that dwells in it, their inward nature is alive because of the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to it.

Eternal life always is a result of righteousness whether actual or behavioral.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:22—NIV)

Eternal life is the result of holiness and righteousness. Holiness and righteousness are the result of our choosing to be the slaves of God rather than of sin.

Our inward, spiritual nature is alive because of the righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to it, and also because of the beginning acts of righteousness that occur in our personality because we have chosen to be the slave of God rather than of sin.

But our body remains spiritually dead.

The goal of the Christian salvation is, as we have said, to redeem our body from death.

Notice the next verse:

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:11—NIV)

The Spirit of the resurrection already is living in us. God's intention is to one day give life to our mortal body by means of that same Holy Spirit of Life.

But if this is to be true, if we are to attain to the resurrection into life in our body, we must obey the commandments of Christ and His Apostles.

To be continued.