When Christ states we have passed from death to life, or Paul teaches that our life is hidden with Christ in God, we are to take our stand on these truths. But then we have to work out the vision in the Presence of the Lord until it actually is true that we have passed from death to life; that we have died to sin and to the world; that our life and affections are hidden with Christ at the right hand of the Father.

Because of the widespread ignorance of the principle of "obeying the vision" we have believers claiming to have passed from death to life because they have believed in certain theological facts. However, they continue to gossip, to speak spitefully and maliciously, to seek revenge, proving beyond doubt that the Life of God is not in them. If we indeed have passed from death to life our personality will reveal this fact.

We have a generation of Christians who, if God does not intervene and lead them to make radical changes in their beliefs and practices, will be raised in the Day of Christ to discover that their Christianity has been a house of cards. They are not prepared for the realities of the spirit realm or of the Kingdom of God.

They have been taught the vision of the Scriptures, the vision of the new creation, of the royal priesthood, of the new Jerusalem. But they have not been taught how to obey the Divine vision, how to work it out in the Presence of the Lord. They are expecting to be ushered into a dreamland, a world of fantasy in the spirit realm.

Although they are not living a life of victory, the deceived believers assume they will be mighty kings and lords who will rule the nations of the earth with a rod of iron. They will be like Jesus and will be able to see Him as He is. Meanwhile they are living in the flesh in the present world system. Their common sense should tell them better than this!

The second principle of scriptural interpretation is "the assumption of the scriptural standard of discipleship."

Whenever Paul refers to the things that will happen to "us" he means to those who have set aside their own lives and are following the Master in unqualified obedience. They have sternly renounced the world and their own ambitions and are patiently carrying their cross and following Christ.

When Paul teaches we shall rise to meet Christ in the air and then be ever with the Lord, or employs the phrase "in Christ," or states that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, he is speaking of those who are adhering to the scriptural standard of discipleship.

The preaching of today leaves the impression that all who make a profession of faith in Christ are included in Paul's promises. The standard of discipleship in the wealthy nations of our day is so far below what God has in mind that only a relatively few believers, it appears, are qualified to receive the promises set forth by the Apostle Paul.

To be continued.