Our great hope is the grace that will be brought to us at the appearing of Christ.

The grace that is to be brought to us at the revelation of Christ is the resurrection from the dead. Not just that we shall be raised from the dead, for all shall be raised—the wicked as well as the righteous. Rather, our hope is that we shall be raised to eternal life in the Kingdom of God. The first resurrection, the resurrection of the royal priesthood, was the goal of the Apostle Paul.

There is one extremely important aspect of the resurrection that seldom if ever is preached in the churches of today. It is that the kind of resurrection we will enjoy depends directly on what we sow. If we sow to our flesh we will be raised to corruption. If we sow to the Spirit of God we will reap eternal life.

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:8)

The tribulations that confront us now are creating an eternal weight of glory, a body from Heaven that will be given to us in the day of resurrection. We will receive such a reward provided we faithfully are accepting the pains and pressures and, through the Holy Spirit, are translating them into the resurrection Life of the Lord.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; (II Corinthians 4:17)

The preaching of grace that fills Christian churches is ninety percent inaccurate. The great work of redemption, which is the transformation of the individual, is seldom mentioned. Forgiveness, which is but one aspect of grace, is expanded to include every verse of the New Testament. Most Christians in America are unaware grace does not intervene in or affect the process of sowing and reaping. They suppose by grace they will be made powerful lords—rulers of the universe—at the appearing of Jesus even though they have not taken up their cross and followed the Lord.

The churches of America are in apostasy because of an overemphasis on the forgiveness aspect of grace. The footnotes of every edition of the Scriptures we have read perpetuate this error. Are the major publishers unaware there are other viewpoints?

What president of a denomination or seminary is courageous enough to stand up to the modern Goliath of super-grace and challenge him with the Word of God, deploring the excessive emphasis on "faith alone" arising from the reactionary nature of the Protestant Reformation?

What publisher of an edition of the Scriptures, in the footnotes pertaining to the sixth chapter of the Book of Hebrews, will dare to explain that the passage is addressed to backsliding Christians, stating that if they have been filled with the Word and Spirit of God and then fall away they are in danger of being cut out of the Vine?

We have the authority through the blood of the Lord Jesus to become the House of God. We have the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. Let us press forward into the fullness of the rest of God and thus join the ranks of the heroes of faith. They are waiting for us to reach forward toward the mark in order that they along with us may be made perfect in the Kingdom of God.

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:38,39) (from Three Works of Grace)