The Daily Word of Righteousness

John 6:25-58, #13

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. (John 6:39)

"I shall lose none he has given me but raise them up at the last day."

We will discover, as we proceed with our examination of the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, that the resurrection from the dead is formed in us as we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ: that is, as we eat from the Tree of Life.

In order to eat from the Tree of Life every day we have to be gaining the victory over sin; because access to the Tree of Life is given only to the victorious saints.

What I am saying is, only the victorious saints will be raised from the dead when the Lord returns.

What about the majority of believers, those who live according to the sinful nature? They are in God's hands. The second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation enumerate certain rewards given to those who live in victory over sin. As I see it, these rewards are steps toward attaining to the resurrection from the dead. The first reward is to eat from the Tree of Life.

Eating from the Tree of Life each day is required if we are to attain to the remainder of the rewards outlined in the second and third chapters of Revelation.

We cannot be resurrected on the outside until we first have been resurrected on the inside. Does this make sense to you? God is not going to clothe a sinful, disobedient nature with a body like that of Jesus Christ. Today we would say that God will clothe a sinful nature because the person is saved by grace. Salvation by grace has to do with freedom from the requirements of the Law of Moses. It has nothing to do with attaining to the resurrection from the dead. If grace were the only requirement for attaining to the resurrection from the dead, then why was the Apostle Paul toward the end of his life still endeavoring to attain to the resurrection from the dead?

Today we are attempting to use grace to excuse the believer who is living according to his or her sinful nature. This assuredly is not the purpose of the grace of God!

In order to be raised from the dead when the Lord appears, we have to have been living by His body and blood. Our belief in doctrine serves only to lead us to the body and blood of the Lamb of God. Faith in theology will not raise anyone from the dead.

To be continued.