In the case of the victorious saints who are alive at the coming of the Lord the procedure is slightly different. First the flesh and blood metabolism that supports human life will be withdrawn and spiritual life will take its place. Then the individual will be clothed with his or her house from Heaven. This applies only to those who attain the first resurrection from the dead, the resurrection that will take place when the Lord appears.

Notice how the Apostle Paul, after stressing the importance of the resurrection of our body, speaks of the change that will occur.

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (I Corinthians 15:53—NIV)

The perishable is our mortal body. The fact that the mortal body is clothed with the imperishable and the immortal means in our future glorified body the mortal body, although clothed with immortality, will nevertheless be present. It will not be visible, probably, but it will be present.

The cave of Joseph of Arimathea was empty. Jesus revealed his flesh and bones to His apostles. Yet we see, in the first chapter of the Book of Revelation, a form that is infinitely more than flesh and bones.

Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. (Luke 24:39—NIV)

And among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man,"  dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. (Revelation 1:13-15—NIV)

We conclude, then, that every individual will be raised from the place of interment. But it is what happens after this that is so terribly important.

The message of tremendous significance to the American Christians is that our behavior today, while it does not affect the fact that we will be raised (for all shall come forth from the grave), directly affects what will take place afterward, including the time and place of our resurrection and the attendant circumstances.

"Well," one may wonder, "doesn't grace take care of all of this? Won't grace insure that nothing bad will happen to me after my flesh and bones are revived?"

No, grace does not take care of our future. This is not the purpose of grace. Grace operates now as we go to God for forgiveness and for help in turning from our sinful ways. But grace will not protect us at the Judgment Seat of Christ. What we sow we are going to reap. The idea that grace will make up for a careless Christian discipleship is one of the most grievous errors of current Evangelical teaching.

There is no truth more in need of being taught to Evangelical Christians than that having to do with the relationship between the choices they are making today and what they will experience upon entering the spirit realm at physical death, and also in the day of resurrection when the Lord appears from Heaven.

Those who are teaching that the believers are "saved by grace" and are to have no fear of the Judgment Seat of Christ are false prophets and will suffer along with their followers in the day of reckoning.

To be continued.