The Lord Jesus Christ is a knowledgeable Person. As our Judge He is at once far more compassionate than any human judge and far more severe than any human judge. He can save and He also can assign to eternal torment—that which no human judge has the authority to do.

Let no human being presume on the goodness of Christ!

There are people, such as the thief on the cross, whom Jesus brings to Paradise apart from their having any opportunity to grow in eternal life. It is not for us to compare ourselves with the thief on the cross, to attempt to outwit God by living a careless life with the intention of calling out to Jesus at the time of our death. God will not permit this. We have no knowledge of the background of the thief on the cross or what was in the mind of the Lord when He forgave him at his last moment on the earth.

Also, it is true that the character of each of God's rulers is formed under "heat and pressure." It is unlikely that ruling character can be formed in the spirit Paradise to which the thief was invited. It may be true that those who are destined to rule in the Kingdom of God are given the opportunity to experience on earth the necessary pressures and other opportunities to come to maturity in obedience, wisdom, and knowledge. It is those who suffer who will rule. God is building His Kingdom according to His foreknowledge.

The Lord Jesus taught us that some people will reap eternal life to a thirtyfold extent, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold. These differences are in the degree to which Christ is brought forth in our personality.

It is possible for any person to become a hundredfold believer. Such a supplanting of what we are with the Person of God and Christ requires discipline on our part. Command upon command the Person of God invades our person. We must hold steady in faith during this transmutation of our substance and nature. The hundredfold are the highest rulers because their life is the Life of God.

The subject of this booklet is Philippians 3:11. We are attempting to show that the full resurrection of spirit and soul is necessary if we expect to participate in the first resurrection from the dead, in the resurrection that will take place when the Lord Jesus returns. The first resurrection is the resurrection of God's royal priesthood.

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)

The royal priesthood, the hundredfold believers, will regain their dead bodies in advance of the remainder of mankind.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:5)

To be continued.