After the final judgment there will be a new heaven and earth. The holy city, Jerusalem, will be surrounded by a wall in order to keep out those who do not do the Father's will. The saints will govern the new world in order to prevent future rebellions.

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (I Peter 4:17)

First we learned that Christ is "ready to judge the living and the dead." Now we see that the Divine judgment begins at the household of God.

The Divine judgment falls upon us in the form of suffering—suffering designed to purify us of immorality, worldliness, and especially of self-will and self-seeking.

There is no escaping the Divinely imposed suffering. We cannot escape by physical death. Sooner or later, in one place or another, the worldliness, immorality, and self-will in our personality must be driven from us if we expect to walk in white with the Lord Jesus as a member of the royal priesthood.

And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:3)

Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:12)

Now we come to a verse that makes no sense in terms of today's teaching. But it makes perfect sense in the light of what we have written in the preceding pages.

And if the righteous scarcely be saved [is saved with difficulty], where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (I Peter 4:18)

"If the righteous is saved with difficulty."

In what manner is the righteous person saved with difficulty? For whom is the salvation of the righteous a difficult task?

If we are saved by the blood of the Lamb upon our acceptance of the Lord Jesus, where is the difficulty?

There is no difficulty according to modern teaching. The job was finished two thousand years ago.

The truth is, the righteous are in the process of being saved and it is a difficult task. It is difficult for God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, the elect angels, the ministry, whoever is praying for us, and for us ourselves.

All of these are in travail as we struggle with God in the process of changing us from the adamic nature to a life-giving spirit. The love of the world must be burned out of us. The lusts of our bodies must be burned out of us. Our romanticism and idealism must be burned out of us. Our ambition to be preeminent must be burned out of us. Our self-will and self-centeredness must be burned out of us. Our willingness to covet another person's inheritance and even to seek to supplant him or her must be burned out of us.

To be continued.