During the process of becoming a Christian we accept the blood atonement made by Christ as the payment for our sins. We are baptized in water as a sign of our forsaking the world. The Lord God gives us a new heart and spirit. God plants the Divine Seed, Christ, in us and gives us His Holy Spirit. We are born again of the Divine Nature. By these acts of redemption God rescues us from the authority of Satan and moves us into the Kingdom of God.

God does not move us from the earth when we are saved. He moves us from the spirit of the world. It is important that we grasp the difference between being redeemed from the earth and being redeemed from the bondage of evil. If we remain in the belief that God is performing His works of grace in us so He can move us from earth to Heaven we will not understand the plan of redemption.

The purpose of redemption is not to move us from the earth to Heaven. The purpose of redemption is to move us from the kingdom of Satan to the Kingdom of Christ.

The redemption of the Christian believer is not to move from the earth to Heaven. Rather, it is to move from the control of Satan to the control of Christ. An understanding of this distinction makes a great difference in the way in which we view God's working in us. For if we regard Heaven as the land of promise and the earth as Egypt, we will sit down spiritually and wait for Jesus to come and take us to the land of promise in the sky.

If we regard the fullness of our inheritance in Christ as the land of promise, and bondage to the will of Satan as Egyptian slavery, we will take up our cross and follow the Lord. We will put on an attitude of battle and of overcoming the enemies of Christ until we bring ourselves and our environment into subjection to God's will, as the Holy Spirit enables us.

Waiting for Christ to carry us to Heaven, and bringing ourselves and our environment under subjection to the will of God in Christ, are two very different approaches to the Christian life.

As we have stated, the first area of conquest is that of God's chosen people enslaved in Egypt, and their coming out of Egypt in fulfillment of God's purpose for them, by His wisdom and strength.

When we receive Christ as our Savior we are declaring that we desire to leave the bondage of Satan and enter the Kingdom of Christ, the rule of Christ. God in His love and mercy has made it possible for us to do that. God points us toward the land of promise, the land of milk and honey: perfect rest in God in Christ, freedom from sin and rebellion, conformity to the image of Christ, and authority and responsibility as one of God's eternal kings and priests.

There is a land of tremendous glory and joy toward which we are pressing. The land will be ours in solid reality one day if we do not remove our eyes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

To be continued.