If we are to come to God with the desperation required to resist lust, to resist profanity, to resist violence, to resist occult practices, to resist spite, to resist gossip, to resist our romantic urges, to resist our desire to break out of the prison in which God has permitted us to be placed, then we first must be convinced that our conduct will have a direct effect upon our resurrection; that we are to be clothed in our own conduct in the Day of the Lord.

When an individual has been assured that no matter what he does he will go to eternal bliss in a mansion in Heaven when he dies, he never will possess the inner fire, the fierceness, the determination that are necessary for the successful pursuit of the victorious Christian life. The promises of God are to the overcomer, the winner of the race!

The concept that all will receive the same reward, independently of their conduct, is from Satan. His purpose in this deception is to prevent the moral transformation of God's people. Satan understands very well that the Presence of God will not remain with an individual who is disobeying God. It is the Presence of God that Satan fears. Satan fears the Godhead, not the religious striving of well-intentioned people.

Do the Scriptures invite us to try to behave righteously or do they command us to live righteously on the pain of destruction if we do not?

Please keep in mind that all of the following passages are addressed only to Christians:

Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16)

This means that if a believer, having been baptized in water, keeps on yielding to the urges of sin, he will die spiritually. This hardly could be considered a gentle invitation to live righteously accompanied by the assurance that eternal life already has been guaranteed regardless of compliance with God's laws.

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

This means that if a believer keeps on living in the appetites of the flesh he will die spiritually. This is not a suggestion that he try to be righteous, accompanied by the assurance that eternal life already has been guaranteed regardless of compliance with God's laws.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness [immorality], Idolatry, sorcery, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

This means that if a believer continues to live in the lusts of the flesh he will not inherit the Kingdom of God. None of these actions are permitted in the Kingdom. This is not a mild directive to try to resist sin, accompanied by the assurance that eternal life in the Kingdom of God already has been guaranteed to the believer regardless of obedience to God.

To be continued.