We have entered life. The judgment of the Lord came on our sins in this present world as we confessed our sins to God, repented of them, and through His grace overcame them. We have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

When Christ who is our Life appears we shall appear with Him in glory. Our flesh and bone body will be raised from the dead and clothed with our new body of life from Heaven. We no longer shall have to drag about a body filled with sin and death.

We shall be crowned with glory and honor and given a kingdom. Through Christ we shall tread on all the enemies of righteousness and shall lift the curse from the earth so its intended beauty and utility can break forth as an eternal springtime.

As for the believer who does not pass from death to life in his personality, we cannot say what provision God has made for him when he dies physically. He has not passed from death to life in that he still is walking in the world, in sin, and in self-seeking. His life is physical and soulish, so when he dies physically there is no eternal life present in which to carry on his activities.

To our understanding, the Scriptures do not describe the post-death experience of the fleshly, lukewarm Christian except to emphasize that it will be quite unpleasant (Hebrews 2:3).

If we would live as Jesus intends for us to live we must keep His commandments (I John 2:3). Christ's commandment is that we lay down our own life for His sake and the Gospel's, take up our cross, and follow Him. This is how we enter eternal life in our whole personality.

What does it mean to "live"?

For a human being to live is to do the following:

To serve his God—whoever or whatever that God may be.

To communicate and enter relationships with others.

To be fruitful, reproducing his personality in others.

To grow in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

To overcome difficulties and accomplish what he has set out to do.

To benefit other people.

To enjoy himself.

These are some of the behaviors that we practice as part of our "life." While some or all these possibly could be conducted in the spirit realm, we customarily think of them as taking place on the earth while we are in a material body.

Christianity, perhaps having been influenced by non-Christian philosophies, has come to regard matter as evil and spirit as good. This attitude toward the material realm, including the physical body, is misleading as far as God's plan of redemption is concerned.

The truth is, God regards man in his body as one whole. God regards man as "dust."

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return (Genesis 3:19).

If Adam and Eve had eaten of the tree of life their "dust" would have become immortal.

To be continued.