It is the common belief among Christians that Christ died so we may enter Paradise apart from learning to perform the will of Christ. The believers labor on in guilt and unbelief because they have never been taught, or else reject, the concept that a Christian is an individual who lays down his own life in order that Christ's will may be done in him.

Christ is the first stage in putting down the rebellion. The second stage is made up of the victorious saints, the conquerors, the true disciples. These are Christian people with whom Jesus works until He develops in them the total obedience God requires of the royal priesthood.

Before we proceed, let us point out the concept of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints governing and blessing the nations of saved peoples of the earth. God's kings and priests will rule over the works of God's hands forever. Therefore they must be perfected in obedience.

Through the Lord Jesus the saints must overcome every temptation and pressure that would cause them to turn away from God's perfect will for them. God will test them repeatedly, as He did Christ, until He is absolutely certain of their total, unqualified obedience to Himself. No disobedience is tolerated in the Kingdom of God.

It is of utmost importance to keep in mind that we can overcome only to the extent Christ is formed in us. Christ is the Overcomer. We saints can put down the rebellion in our own hearts only as Christ grows to maturity in us.

There is but one solution to God's problem of rebellion, and that solution is Christ. The reason we keep on pointing out the error of the current emphasis is that the believers are looking to residence in Heaven to accomplish that which only Christ can do. Residence in Heaven cannot possibly remove the rebellion from our hearts. The only manner in which rebellion can be removed from us is by the crucifixion of our fleshly personality and the formation of Christ in us.

Because Christ, and not going to Heaven, is the answer to the rebellion, by making going to Heaven the answer we have brought confusion into God's plan of redemption. Neither we nor the nations of the earth are helped by our departure to Heaven. No matter where we go when we die physically, we shall spend the time waiting for the Day of the Lord, that is, for the day when Christ returns to the earth to establish His throne in the city of Jerusalem.

The victorious saints are the second stage in putting down the rebellion because in and through Christ they become able to always perform the will of God in the earth as His will is revealed to them.

Being an overcomer is available to every believer in Christ. It is so unfortunate that such a few, it seems, avail themselves of this unparalleled opportunity to please God and to gain unimaginable rewards in the Kingdom of God.

To be continued.