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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Six Unscriptural Traditions, continued
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7,8—NIV)
When Paul said the wages of sin is death, that if we walk in the flesh we will die, he was speaking to believers (check the context). Paul meant that if we who are Christians keep on living after the flesh we will reap corruption. We will reap corruption in that our inward eternal life will be choked out, as in the parable of the sower, and in the Day of the Lord there will be no inward resurrection life to make alive our mortal body.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, (Romans 8:11-13—NIV)
Please keep in mind that the passages above are addressed to Christians, not to the unsaved. We who are believers always must keep our eyes on attaining the resurrection unto eternal life. We attain eternal life by turning away from every distraction and pressing forward to the mark set before us. That mark is the out-resurrection, the first resurrection, the resurrection that will take place when the Lord Jesus appears from Heaven with His holy angels.
And so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:11—NIV)
The term "resurrection" as employed above has a prefix meaning out from. The idea is a first resurrection out from among the dead. It is the resurrection to the crown of life worn by the holy priesthood. The first resurrection must be attained by laying aside all else that we may learn to live by the power of Christ's own resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.
From all of this we can readily see why it is so important that our goal be attaining the first resurrection, while our brief stay in Heaven is a time of rest until true human life (although on a transcendent plane) resumes in love, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit.
As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance. (Daniel 12:13—NIV)
Our Physical Body Will Not Be Raised From the Dead
If someone were to ask a fundamentalist Christian if he believed we will be raised from the dead, the response would be, "Of course!"
Yet we believers of today are very vague concerning the doctrine of the resurrection. Our tradition is leading us in a direction that rejects the literal, physical resurrection of the dead. However, the resurrection of the body of the saint is the primary hope of the Christian salvation.
The entire fifteenth chapter of the Book of First Corinthians is devoted to a defense of the bodily resurrection of the saints, probably because of Gnostic teaching.
To be continued.