None of God's needs can be met by people who, although very gifted and accomplished in Christian work, are still self-motivated, who never have laid down their life that they might be raised with Christ.

There is much religious fervor today. The one important issue, as far as God's people are concerned, is that of dying to self-will that we may be raised in God's will.

Salvation is a broad term. Perhaps its primary meaning is that of preservation in the Day of the Lord, the time when the Lord Jesus returns from Heaven to establish His Kingdom on the earth. As we contemplate the texts of the Epistles we come to realize that salvation includes much more than preservation from wrath.

Salvation includes imputed righteousness, that is, the forgiveness of our sins and the assignment of righteousness to us, righteousness that would be earned by us were we able to keep the Law of Moses perfectly.

Salvation includes transformation. The Bible speaks of our becoming a new creation, a creation in which old things have passed away, all things of our personality have become new, and all things are of God.

Imputation. The great error of our thinking today is that we become a new creation by imputation, by grace, by mercy, by God's love and favor, or because the Bible says so. This is totally incorrect. The change spoken of in the New Testament is an actual transformation of what we are in spirit, soul, and body.

Imputed righteousness is the all-important first step of our salvation. Christ's righteousness is assigned to us. But here it stops. So often today the definition of grace is limited to "forgiveness" and then applied to eternal life, being born again, going to Heaven, ruling with Christ, and all other aspects of the Kingdom of God. All become ours apart from any change in our personality because of the righteousness imputed to us.

A swollen grace has become poisonous, supplanting the major works of sanctification, consecration, and glorification.

The transformation, the new creation, is to be actual, observable change. It is not a case of grace, mercy, faith, or any other shibboleth. God wants righteous, holy, obedient people. This is the purpose for the new covenant. It is for this that Jesus Christ died.

The Divine work of transformation includes redemption and growth in the image of Christ and in union with God through Christ. God desires that these two aspects be emphasized and reemphasized in the day in which we are living. Imputation is the first and necessary step. But if it is not followed by transformation God's needs cannot be met. There is no Kingdom of God, because the Kingdom is not in imputation but in transformation.

To be continued.