After we have been raised from the dead, we shall have no more fear of Antichrist or of wicked people. Rather, Antichrist and wicked people will have good reason to fear us. We then shall be alive eternally in Christ and will bring the Divine wrath upon the ungodly.

We go to Heaven when we die physically, if we belong to Christ. But physical death is a defeat, not a victory of redemption. We go to Heaven, to Paradise, when God allows our body to be overcome by the enemy.

The last enemy that will be destroyed is (physical) death (I Corinthians 15:26).

We die physically because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve. By means of physical death, Satan, our enemy, is able to drive us out of our inheritance (the earth) into the spiritual realm from which he originated. This is not a victory for God or for us.

In the sense in which we are speaking here, death is a defeat, an overcoming of us by the forces of Hell. Yet, physical death is anticipated joyfully by the saint because it means he will go home to be with the Lord ("home" in the sense that he will be with the Lord Jesus, not that he will remain in the spiritual realm after the Lord returns to earth to establish His Kingdom).

The grand victory of the Lord Jesus Christ was not His ascension to Heaven, although in that ascension He led captivity captive and gave gifts of grace to men. The supreme victory of the Lord Jesus was His resurrection from the dead. Death and Hell were not able to hold the Spirit, Soul, or body of Christ.

Christ was dead but now is alive forever. Christ is alive. Christ is alive from the dead. This is victory. Where He is at any given moment is not the victory. The victory is that He is eternally alive in the Presence of God. Because He lives we also live in the Presence of the Father.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, not that whoever believes in Him should go to Heaven but that whoever believes in Him should not perish. The issue is not our passing from earth to Heaven, the issue is our passing from death to life.

The issue of Christianity is not Heaven. The issue of Christianity is life. Eternal life. Immortality. An incorruptible, sin-free body.

After Christ's resurrection He possessed a body of flesh and bone. It is the same body that walked the shores of Galilee, although clothed with eternal, incorruptible resurrection life.

The saint who lives an overcoming, victorious Christian life will be given back his body at the coming of the Lord. Whatever we give to God, He brings down to death. Then, if it is worthy, He raises it and returns it to us as our eternal possession. Let us, therefore, present our body to God a living sacrifice.

The mortal body of the conquering saint, the faithful disciple, will be clothed with eternal life. This is the first resurrection from the dead, the resurrection the Apostle Paul was striving to attain (Philippians 3:11). Each believer who attains the first resurrection will be able to rule with Christ over the earth throughout the thousand-year period (Revelation 20:4-6).

To be continued.