Forgiveness is an incomplete synonym of "grace." Divine Virtue is a better synonym of "grace." The Presence of Christ is the complete synonym of "grace."

Salvation includes more than forgiveness. Forgiveness does not fulfill God's Kingdom purposes in us. God's problem of rebellious creatures is not solved when we are forgiven. We are not suitable as a ruler of the world to come merely on the basis of forgiveness.

God's Kingdom purposes in us are accomplished as we are delivered from sin and self-will, changed into the moral image of Christ, and then filled with the fullness of God. Then we are candidates for rulership over the world to come. Then we have become "man" as God has destined man to be.

Mercy and grace bring to us an awareness of God's plan of redemption and provide us with the authority, the power, and the desire to enter and continue with the process of redemption. The process of redemption leads to the resurrection of the body, which is eternal life.

We never earn eternal life. Rather, we enter eternal life by appropriate behavior.

It is the overcomer who gains access to the tree of life. Sinners are never allowed back into Paradise. The thief on the cross walked with Jesus in Paradise because of his remarkable confession of faith, but we can be sure that he too, along with the rest of us, will be required to submit to the rigors that accompany entrance into the Kingdom of God if he is to maintain his position.

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. (Revelation 22:14,15)

We must follow through to total victory in the rest of God. No man who has put his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God. It is impossible for a double-minded individual to attain the first resurrection.

The trumpet of the Jubilee, the release, was sounded on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:9). The Day of Atonement comes after the feast of Pentecost. This symbolizes the fact that after we have been filled with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit leads us to deliverance from the sins of the flesh.

As we confess our sins and put them to death through the Spirit of God, we enter the freedom of the Jubilee. It is time now for the members of the Body of Christ to enter the release, the redemption, the salvation that the Scriptures promise will take place in the last days (I Peter 1:5).

It is possible to judge one's self unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:46) by neglecting the table God has set, by not receiving and doing what God has provided and commanded.

To be continued.