What we are saying is that it is possible to proceed toward perfection when we are in the spirit realm. We certainly do not want our growth in Christ to cease after we die! If there is to be no coming to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of Christ after death, an unnumbered multitude of believers are condemned to spiritual immaturity for eternity. The perfect Body of Christ and Wife of the Lamb will have mighty few members!

We think growth in Christ in the spirit realm is suggested by the following:

To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, (Hebrews 12:23)

"The spirits of righteous men made perfect."

The purpose of making the spirits of righteous men perfect is that they may return with Jesus Christ and take the place of the wicked governing spirits that have created such chaos in the earth. The spirits of righteous men are not made perfect on earth so they can go to Heaven to live forever. If anything the spirits of righteous men are made perfect in Heaven so they can return to earth and live forever. Quite the opposite of the customary viewpoint but much more scriptural, both Old Testament and New Testament.

The perfecting through judgment and suffering, the moral transformation of the sons of God, is described in both the twelfth chapter of Hebrews and the fourth chapter of First Peter.

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (Hebrews 12:5,6)

If you are a child of God you will be chastened by the Lord. You are not to regard lightly His rebuke nor draw back in dismay when He rebukes you. As many as Jesus loves He rebukes and chastens. He punishes all of His sons.

Why does God punish us?

Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Hebrews 12:11)

God disciplines us so we will have a peaceful, righteous personality.

We can see from I Peter 4:1 and Hebrews 12:11 that we suffer at the hands of God because we do not have a holy, righteous personality. If we had a holy, righteous personality we would not have to be chastened. God judges the evil in us, not condemning us but driving the evil from us so we are not condemned with the world.

The same idea of being found worthy of the Kingdom through suffering may be noted as follows:

So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: (II Thessalonians 1:4,5)

To be continued.