The judgment and death of our soul, our will, is by far the most difficult death we die—much more difficult than death to our lusts and passions. Are you willing to enter God to the point that you can say with all your being, "Not my will but Thine be done"?

If you cannot say this and mean it from the depths of your soul, your soul has not as yet become the Throne of God and of the Lamb. Your soul still is uncrucified.

When our spirit is at rest in God's Spirit, our mind is of Christ, and our soul is content in the will of God, then we are ready for our body to be raised from the dead and glorified in Christ. The immortalizing of the physical body in Christ is the destruction of the last enemy, the other enemies of our personality having been dealt with first (I Corinthians 15:26).

Every spirit must bow the knee to Jesus as Lord. All that is in us that is of the adversary is destined for the Lake of Fire. The Divine judgment operates to deliver us from all bondage to Satan and all bondage to our self-will, self-centeredness, and self-love. The latter bondages are worse than the satanic lusts that dwell in us for they represent a continuation of original sin, of human rebellion against God.

Every member of the Kingdom of God obeys God perfectly in a spirit of love, joy, and peace. We must be set free by judgment before we can arrive at such a desirable state. "Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness" (Isaiah 1:27).

We can ruin the entire process by insisting on living in the flesh (Romans 8:13). Willful disobedience to God can result in severe chastening or even in our destruction (Hebrews 10:26,27).

The second man is as unique a creation as the first man. The second man is not a reformed or made-over first man. The second man is not half-natural and half-spiritual. The second man is truly and thoroughly man in that he is not an angel but a creature in the image of God; and truly of God in that he is born of God, in unity with the Godhead, and filled with the Godhead.

The second man is not a first man "trying to be like Jesus." The second man is of the Nature of Jesus and is filled with Jesus.

Our first personality is hopelessly corrupt, weak, and dishonorable (I Corinthians 15:42,43). Our flesh is full of sin. We must confess our sins and put them to death through the Spirit of God, as Christ directs us (Romans 8:13; I John 1:7-9).

If we do not confess our sins and repent of them they remain as part of our personality.

But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. (Numbers 33:55)

God may then have to judge us and bring us into suffering so we will be willing to repent of our sins (I Corinthians 11:29-32).The Scriptures serve as the second man is being brought to full stature. The second man serves God by nature. He is the flesh made the word.

Christ is the Day Star. We are to live by the Scriptures as Christ comes to maturity in us:

We have also a more sure word of prophecy [the Scriptures]; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (II Peter 1:19) (from Without Sin Unto Salvation; from It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking)