The second, general resurrection is the one people usually think about when they imagine what will take place after they die. The dead will be raised and stand before God. The righteous will enter the Kingdom. The wicked will be cast into the flames.

But the first resurrection is that of God's kings and priests, His judges. In fact, it is Jesus Christ and His kings and priests who will perform the work of judging those who are raised in the second resurrection. They also will judge the angels.

As you might expect, those who attain the first resurrection are not the average church-attenders of our day. There is a path to the glory of the first resurrection that must be followed, and it is strenuous and totally demanding.

Before we proceed, let us mention two relevant passages from the Bible.

Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. (Revelation 3:4—NIV)

The verse above is referring to the Christian Church in Sardis, the lampstand of God. Only a few of these Christians will walk in the white robes of the priesthood. The rest of the believers were not found worthy of the first resurrection.

Why were they not worthy? Because they had soiled their clothes. They had been given clean spiritual clothes when they believed in Jesus Christ. But then they were not careful to confess and turn from their sins each day.

The concept of worthiness is seldom preached today because of the tremendous overemphasis on the grace of forgiveness. We must at once turn from the unbalanced preaching of our day and proclaim the need for God's people to wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Otherwise they have no hope of attaining the first resurrection from the dead.

The second relevant passage is as follows:

And so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:11—NIV)

Our readers are well acquainted with Philippians 3:11 because we employ the verse so frequently. However, it is not often preached in other places. Is this true?

But stop and think! Here was Paul, an old man, already having founded several churches and written some epistles, in the Praetorian barracks in Rome, probably chained to a brutish Roman soldier, stating his chief goal: "I am striving with all my might to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

What is remarkable is that the primary goal of the Apostle is seldom or never preached. Yet he exhorts us to be "thus minded."

Maybe we better become "thus minded." But before we can have the same goal as Paul we need to know more about the resurrection Paul was seeking to attain. Obviously this is not the general resurrection, for all shall participate there. The second resurrection is inevitable.

It is also obvious that attaining the first resurrection must call for outstanding consecration if Paul still was pressing toward it.

To be continued.