We may be trusting in the blood of the Lamb. We may be cooperating with the Holy Spirit as He creates the Divine testimony in us. But the most important and the most difficult aspect of the salvation of the sons of God is the losing of our independence of thought and action in order that we may become one with God and His will.

The original sin always is disobedience, not murder, adultery, or covetousness, but disobedience. This is why both Christ and Abraham, and then every member of the governing priesthood, must be tested rigorously in the area of stern obedience to the Father.

Only the Divinely appointed suffering can burn out of us our instinctive rebellion and self-love. Only the flames of tribulation, the suffering found not in Paradise but in this present world, can destroy self-centeredness from us.

God wants us to realize that insisting upon our own will, our own

independence of thought and action, is sufficient to change us from a child of God filled with Divine Light and Life into a horrible monster of darkness and depravity.

When the Lord Jesus came two thousand years ago, He gave us an idea of what the Kingdom of God would be like. The Lord exercised the power of the Kingdom in healing the sick, casting out demons, and walking on water.

He at that time could have summoned the legions of powerful angels that perform God's will. He could have brought to an end the agony of earth's people as they wallow in the filth poured on them from the evil spiritual thrones in the air above us.

Christ at once could have at once abolished all sickness, all tragedy, all death.

Why did not the Lord do this? Why did He allow the rebellious lords of the heavens to continue to pollute the earth with their self-will and stubborn determination to frustrate the will of God, thus bringing untold misery upon the nations of the earth for so long a period of time?

The answer is, God is waiting for both righteousness and sin to come to maturity and to be clearly defined. The Father is showing the self-willed former rulers of the heavenlies, as well as the elect angels who chose the Father's will, His perfect wisdom and righteousness.

To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by [through] the church the manifold wisdom of God, (Ephesians 3:10)

An example of God's willingness to allow sin to come to full definition occurred in His dealing with Abraham:

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (Genesis 15:16)

"The sin of the Amorites is not yet full, not yet complete."

The Father is exercising His infinite wisdom and patience as He permits sinners, both angelic and human, to keep on proving the wisdom and righteousness of God. Even the Lord Jesus, who has paid the full price for the redemption of all people, must wait until the Father brings the Lord's enemies under His feet.

To be continued.