It never can be true that we sow sin and reap life. Until we realize this clearly and absolutely we will not be able to enter the Kingdom of God. We are in deception and can expect lashes, whether or not we name the name of Jesus. The Lord Jesus always says, "Depart from me you who are lawless. Go into outer darkness, for you have no place in a kingdom of righteous, obedient people."

After the work of reconciliation during the Kingdom Age, the physical universe to which we are accustomed will pass away with a great noise. The dead, small and great, will stand before God. Those who have learned obedience, whose names are in the Book of Life, will be permitted to enter life on the new earth. They will be given access to the tree of life in the midst of the Paradise of God.

The individuals who still maintain their own way before God, even after He has worked so patiently and lovingly with them, will be cast into the Lake of Fire with their fellow rebels.

The End Result of the Judaic-Christian Salvation

When the problem of disobedience has been dealt with it will be time for Paradise to be restored to the earth.

Down from the new heaven will come the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem is the Wife of the Lamb, the Body of Christ, the glorified Christian Church. The Throne of God and of the Lamb has come to the earth.

All of the effects of the curse: the tears, the death, the sorrow, the crying, the pain—the suffering that always result from disobedience to God, have been removed. The holy city is filled with righteous servants of the Lord who will rule the works of God's hands forever. The nations of saved peoples of the earth will walk in the light of God's royal priesthood.

The wicked do not disappear. Rather, they are kept in prison so that people and angels may see them from time to time and ponder the consequences of rebellion against God.

And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. (Isaiah 66:24)

There is a massive wall that surrounds the new Jerusalem. The purpose of a wall around a city is to keep out the enemy. The tree of life is inside the wall (Revelation 22:2,14). The wall is founded on the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. The ornamented foundations of the wall, and the wall itself, represent that perfect obedience to God and resistance to sin that have been formed in the overcomers by the heat and pressure of life on the earth.

Since the disobedient are in the Lake of Fire, what is the purpose of the wall of the new Jerusalem? Either it is symbolic, revealing that a wall against sin has been developed in the personalities of the royal priesthood, especially the personalities of the firstfruits; or else the wall signifies that any individual of the nations of the saved who lapses into sin will not be permitted to approach God until he turns from his wickedness and practices righteousness.

To be continued.