The Daily Word of Righteousness

Paradise or Eternal Life?, #16

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3)

The saved nations from time to time will come to the new Jerusalem to be blessed by the Presence of Christ in His saints.

And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16)

The Holy Spirit will issue as the River of Life from the Presence of God. The Tree of Life, which is God in Christ in the saints, will be available to the saved nations of the earth.

We see from this pattern that there are least in the Kingdom and greatest in the Kingdom. It is not just a matter of regaining Paradise. The question is: What will be our role in the new world? Will it really make a difference in our destiny whether or not we live the victorious Christian life, or is it sufficient to just enter Paradise by the skin of our teeth, so to speak?

We already have mentioned the resurrecting and glorifying of our body. It appears certain that the Lord Jesus will not clothe a worldly, sinful, disobedient personality with a body like His own. It is not impossible that when the Lord returns, only those members of His Church who have followed Him closely will receive back their body from death.

If this is true, we may find some of God's elect in Spirit-filled glorified flesh and bone bodies ministering to the nations of the earth (who still are flesh and blood) and also to the remainder of the Church who are contained in the spirit realm. If this proves to be the case, then attaining to the first resurrection from the dead is very desirable.

We have mentioned that the kind of house from Heaven that will clothe our resurrected flesh and bone will reveal in itself the good and the evil we have practiced. This is shown clearly, not only in II Corinthians 5:10 but also in the following:

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:8)

We shall reap either corruption or eternal life in the day of resurrection, depending on the kind of "sowing" we have done throughout our lifetime.

How would you enjoy being in Paradise in a corrupt state?

The Scripture mentions crowns and white raiment. The crowns portray the authority that will be given to the conquerors. The raiment speaks, we believe, of that which will cover our resurrected flesh and bones in the Day of the Lord.

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. (II Timothy 4:8)

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. (James 1:12)

To be continued.