There is no truth of the Scriptures more neglected than that concerning the bodily resurrection from the dead. All persons who have ever lived on the earth will be raised from the dead. The resurrection is inevitable. What is significant is what takes place after we are raised.

If we have followed the Lord Jesus diligently, laying down our life for His sake and the Gospel's, then we will attain the first resurrection. Our resurrected body will be clothed with a body of life that will reflect in itself the victories we have gained through Christ.

If we have not followed the Lord Jesus diligently, have not laid down our life for His sake and the Gospel's, but instead have lived in the passions and appetites of the soul and flesh, then we will not attain the first resurrection. Our resurrected body will be clothed with a body that contains in itself the corruption in which we lived. We may be spared from destruction in the day of Divine wrath, but our condition in the Kingdom will not reflect the life of victory in the Lord Jesus. Also, it may be true that a great part of our personality will be burned away by the fire of Divine judgment and we will enter the Kingdom of God without any inheritance carried over from our life lived on the earth.

The thoughtful reader will understand why Paul had laid all else aside that he might attain the out-resurrection from the dead.

The challenge placed before each Christian believer is to attain eternal resurrection life. Christ did not pray we would be taken out of the world but that we would be kept out of the evil, out of the power of sin, out of the spiritual death that results from sinful behavior.

Two powers are competing each day in each Christian. Eternal life and eternal death are struggling for mastery of his or her personality. Each day the saint yields to one or the other of these two spiritual forces.

When we believe in Christ, we pass from death to life. We awaken to spiritual life as our spirit is brought into union with the Spirit of God. The Father receives us because of the blood of Jesus that has been sprinkled upon and before the Mercy Seat in Heaven.

Now the warfare, the race, the wrestling match, commences in earnest. The warfare, the struggle, is waged in our personality. Will we allow the sin and death that dwell in our body to conquer our new spiritual life? Or will we, through the Presence of Christ, conquer the deeds and lusts of our flesh and soul?

If our adamic personality wins, we die spiritually. We lose the first resurrection from the dead. If we, on the other hand, overcome the deeds of our mortal body, we attain to eternal resurrection life (Romans 8:13).

To be continued.