Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for Jesus' sake and the Gospel's, will save it.

God requires fruit from every saint. In order to bear fruit that will remain, and to inherit the Divine salvation, we must be willing to follow the Holy Spirit into death to the world, death to sin, and death to our self-will, self-seeking, self-love, and self-centeredness. Those who are willing to share in Christ's suffering and death will share also in the fullness of the glory of His resurrection life.

What is man?

Man is a son of God, the image of God, an incomplete, dependent person, and a source of the Life and image of Christ throughout the creation of God. But man is more than this.

Man is the throne of God, the ruler of the creation. In the beginning God assigned to physical man a limited rulership over the creation.

. . . and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26)

The Spirit of Christ in David revealed that God is looking beyond physical man and his rulership over fish, birds, and cattle:

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psalms 8:5,6)

The Spirit wants us to consider what "man" actually is: that he has been crowned as a king with glory and honor; that God has given him dominion over the works of God's hands and has put all things under his feet.

The writer of the Book of Hebrews portrays the extent of the rulership assigned to "man":

Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. (Hebrews 2:8)

God intends for "man" to rule and judge the creation. All authority and power in Heaven and on the earth, and all judgment, have been given to Christ; not because He is the Son of God but because He is the Son of Man. It is "man" who is to be crowned with glory and honor. The Scriptures cannot be changed.

The saints, as "man," will share the dominion with the Lord Jesus Christ.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21)

It is in the realm of "overcoming" that we must be careful not to neglect our salvation.

Many forces are determined we will not attain our inheritance as "man": the world, Satan, the lusts of our flesh, our self-will and self-love, and sometimes the professing churches and worldly or deceived "believers." These are arrayed against us. Weak believers, if they do not seek the Lord's strength, will be overcome by one or more of these forces. Only those who receive from Christ the fierce spirit of the conquering Lion of Judah will be able to overcome every enemy and enter the rest of God.

To be continued.