In order to be saved we must believe in Christ and be baptized in water. Our act of believing shows our obedience to God and is counted as righteousness. Our act of being baptized in water also reveals our obedience to God and is counted as righteousness. Being baptized in water is a demonstration before God and man of our readiness to forsake the world and follow Christ.

However, the goal of redemption is not limited to our being saved from wrath. We are saved from wrath and to a glorious resurrection in Christ's Kingdom—a resurrection that includes joy and glory yet undreamed of. With this hope in mind, we are to keep on seeking the Lord from the moment we are saved and have our sins forgiven.

God has called us to be the image of Christ, to be a room in the eternal Temple of God, to inherit all the works of God's hands.

What does it mean to overcome; for the inheritance goes to the overcomer?

The moment we receive Christ and are saved we enter a race, a battle, a struggle for the fullness of life. Our goal, our mark, is the image of Christ created in our personality, and the filling of our personality with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16-19).

We, upon being saved from wrath, are at the starting line. At the finish line is a personality in Christ's image, the fullness of the Divine Presence of the Almighty God, and a royal inheritance in the Kingdom of God. The pistol is fired and we begin the race.

It is not an easy race, a painless warfare. Like any other struggle it requires effort and diligence on our part if we are to win, to overcome the many forces seeking to prevent our victory.

The moment the saint begins to press forward toward the image of Christ and the fullness of the indwelling of God, he is resisted steadily, cunningly, and viciously by his fleshly lusts, the spirit of the world, Satan, his own self-centeredness and self-will, and sometimes by the churches of Christ.

These are strong enemies. It is only by the grace of God that anyone is able to overcome these obstacles and enter the inheritance. The prize is worth every moment and every pain of the struggle.

It would be impossible for any human being to overcome all his foes. If someone were able to conquer them all through means of his self-will, his self-will would become his greatest enemy.

Only God in Christ is strong enough and wise enough to overcome the world. It is only as we keep on coming in faith to Christ, who has overcome the world, that we can overcome the world.

Through Christ's assistance, through means of His Life working in us, we can overcome every obstacle to our ruling with Christ.

To be continued.