It is time for the Church to wake up. The Kingdom of God is at hand and it is a genuine kingdom with a King, a nobility, an army, and all other aspects of a kingdom. None of this reality and Divine glory is ascribed to us when we do not possess it; rather, it is created in us as we patiently, faithfully follow Christ through the tribulations of life on earth.

God envisions things that are not in existence as though they were in existence. God already sees us glorified in Christ. But unless we press forward in the Holy Spirit until we actually are glorified, the Divine vision will never become reality. Let us not be mistaken about this or one day we will be weeping and gnashing our teeth in remorse and anger because of opportunities forever lost.

Salvation and glorification always are an opportunity, not a fact ascribed to us when there is no reality.

Deliverance from both the guilt and the force of sin takes place in those who live each day in union with the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.

Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: (Romans 6:8)

Every element of the Divine redemption is based on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and our participation in that resurrection.

How terrible it would have been if Christ had been crucified carrying the load of our sins and then had been imprisoned eternally in Hades! In that case we would have had no guarantee that our sins were forgiven.

It is Christ's resurrection that makes redemption the glorious triumph that it is, that assures our entrance into joy and glory.

Apart from Christ's resurrection and our resurrection we are of all people the most to be pitied.

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. (I Corinthians 15:19,20)

We have voluntarily entered into union with Christ's death and burial. We have done so in order that we may be raised with Him far above all other authority and power. Our hope of eternal life is based entirely on Christ's resurrection.

The reason many of today's preachers and teachers do not emphasize the resurrection, in some cases stressing the ascension ("rapture") as an escape from earth's problems, is that they never have taken their place on the cross with Christ. They are very much alive in their adamic nature. They are hoping that God will save them as they are and carry them to a place where they will be perfectly happy. They are fortunate that God is not going to fulfill their hope, because if He did bring them in their adamic state into Paradise they soon would be competing angrily with one another.

The victorious saints are being changed into Christ's death and experiencing the power of Christ's resurrection. They are looking for and longing for His appearing. He will appear to them and fulfill their desire for righteousness. At His coming He will change their physical bodies until they are like His.

To be continued.