There is no process by which we can sow grass seed and reap some other crop. To reap an additional crop would require the planting of an additional kind of seed.

It is precisely the same in the spirit realm. When we sow sin we reap spiritual (and sometimes physical) death. When we sow righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God we reap eternal life.

In our day we are teaching God's people they can sow indifference and sin and reap eternal life. This would be the same as advising someone that he could plant grass seed and reap roses.

Here is why appealing to love and grace as an alternative to the necessity for righteous behavior is so destructive. It is to imply we can sow grass seed and reap roses.

To a far, far greater extent than is ordinarily taught, the Lord's people will reap precisely what they have sown. In the Day of Resurrection they shall be rewarded precisely as their works have been.

There are several aspects of the rewards held out to the victorious saints. These rewards include endowment with the authority and power of eternal life, rulership over the nations of the earth, closeness to the Lord, and opportunities for service.

We would like to emphasize one aspect of the reward, and that is the body from Heaven, that will clothe our flesh and bone body when it is raised from the dead. The body from Heaven is the reward that the Lord will bring with Him in the day our flesh and bones are resurrected.

Our body from Heaven, the body that is being fashioned before the throne of God, is sometimes referred to as a "house"; sometimes as a "robe."

The point is this: the house, or robe, is being fashioned from what is taking place right now in our physical body on earth. One might think of it in this way: our body on earth is being sown in corruption that it may be raised in glory.

And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: (I Corinthians 15:37)

As our body is sown into the death of the Lord Jesus, as we experience the sufferings of Christ, a counterpart is formed before God's throne—a counterpart that will clothe our mortal body when our mortal body is raised from the dead.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; (II Corinthians 4:17)

The eternal weight of glory is our house from Heaven, and it is formed as we die in the Lord and His resurrection Life is revealed in us.

This is the meaning of "that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (II Corinthians 5:10).

To be continued.