The total transformation of our personality can be very difficult for us to undergo. Will we quit? Will we get off the train? Will we refuse God at some point of penetration? We work it out! work it out! work it out!

Will we fail in the testing? We fear and tremble as we work out the change from Adam to Christ.

The dwelling of the Father and the Son in the new creation that has been formed in us. God will not dwell in Adam, only in Christ. Christ is the House of the Father.

We have been called from the foundation of the world to be the dwelling place of God, to be a room in the Father's House.

Since God will dwell only in Christ, Christ must be formed in us if we would fulfill our destiny.

We have been called. Whether we pass from the ranks of the called to the company of the chosen depends on the diligence with which we respond to our calling.

Having become one of the chosen few we must then be proven faithful.

These operations and transformations must be accomplished before the Father and the Son can settle down and find their rest in our personality.

We see therefore that we do not work for our salvation. Rather we work it out with fear and trembling.

Small is the gate and pressured is the way that leads to life and few find it.

We can enter the gate, the Lord Jesus Christ, although it is so small we have to get down on our knees and leave everything behind in order to crawl through.

Having begun on the path that leads to life we find that Jesus Himself is the way; Jesus Himself is the truth; Jesus Himself is the life. The Way, the Truth, and the Life lead to rest in the Father.

But the way is not a bed of roses. It is filled with perplexity, discouraging factors, sometimes persecution, pressure, or some other form of pain or weakness. We have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

God keeps us off balance. He sends circumstances that weaken us so we are forced to abandon our own resources and trust totally in resurrection life. The change from self-reliance to God-reliance does not happen in a moment but little by little as we press forward.

We have a clear goal—to be changed into the image of Christ and to enter untroubled rest in the Father.

We have a clear path to follow:

Continual turning away from worldliness, the lusts of our flesh, and our own self-will, and continual cleansing through the blood of the Lamb of God.

The continual Presence of the Holy Spirit in us as we put to death the deeds of our body and choose to walk in the Life of the Spirit.

Continual obedience to the commandments found in the New Testament, realizing that they are required of us and that we can in fact obey them as God sends help from the Most Holy Place in Heaven.

The continual formation of Christ in us as He feeds us with His body and blood, assisting us as we fight the good fight of faith.

Finally the consummation—the eternal dwelling of the Father and Christ in us that we may be the expression of God's Person throughout His creation.

This is our salvation. We do not work to earn it. God has given it to us as a gift, but it must be worked out if we are to profit from it.