We would like to focus the present discussion on the goal of our salvation, that is, our personal transformation into Christ's image, as being above and beyond the simple entrance into Paradise upon our physical death.

The Day of Atonement. With regard to our transformation from Adam to Christ, let us look more closely at the Day of Atonement, found in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Leviticus.

The sprinkling of the blood of the slain goat upon and before the Mercy Seat portrays the sprinkling of Christ's blood before the Altar of God in Heaven for the forgiveness of our sins. The forgiveness of our sins authorizes us to begin the process of transformation that results in the forming of the Kingdom of God in us.

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (Hebrews 9:12)

And now we come to the scapegoat.

And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: (Leviticus 16:21)

The confessing of sins and laying them on the head of the living goat, and the sending away of the living goat into the wilderness, show clearly that our redemption includes the removal of sin from our personality.

The feasts of the Lord are always proclaimed "in their seasons."

These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. (Leviticus 23:4)

We believe that this is the season for the Day of Atonement, that it has begun now for the Church of Christ, and that it will extend throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

The closer we are to the Lord today the more we shall experience the dealings of the Holy Spirit as He begins to lead us in warfare against the worldliness, lust, and self-will in our personality.

It is our conviction that only those who have cooperated fully with the Holy Spirit in the removal of sin from their personality are eligible to be raised as part of the royal priesthood when the Lord appears.

Why is this? It is because when the Lord appears, those who have lived victoriously in Him will be raised from the dead and then glorified by being clothed with a body from Heaven. They will have a body like the Lord Jesus. They will then be able to enter the Paradise of God in a body of flesh and bone, just as is true of the Lord Jesus.

No human being can ever be raised from the dead and clothed with a body like that of the Lord Jesus while there is worldliness, lust, and rebellion in his or her personality. Only those who through Christ overcome the world, Satan, and their self-will are authorized to eat of the tree of life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God (Revelation 2:7). The cherubim are still guarding the tree!

To be continued.