The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment, #2

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:11)

There are at least three concepts associated with the resurrection from the dead:

The elements of the redeemed personality.

The role of the conversion of the inner man in attaining the resurrection to life.

Receiving the results of our choices.

The Elements of the Redeemed Personality

There are three elements we must consider when studying the redeemed personality:

The inner man (spirit and soul).

The flesh and bone body.

The "house which is from heaven."

The inner man (spirit and soul).

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inner man is renewed day by day. (II Corinthians 4:16)

It is our understanding that our spirit is the part of our personality that is able to enter oneness with the Spirit of God. Our spirit is the expression of our personality.

Our soul is our will, our existence as a unique personality. Our soul is the final "I" that decides whether to obey the Holy Spirit or its own adamic impulses and the lusts of our body. Our decisions, our choices, come from our soul. It is the soul that must be saved by being converted, for the new race God is creating does not consist of adamic souls but of life-giving spirits (I Corinthians 15:45).

Our soul can choose to receive its guidance, strength, and joy from God through the Spirit and cooperate in its own transformation into the image of Christ, and also its union with God through Christ; or our soul can choose to receive its guidance, strength, and joy from its human mind and from the senses of the physical body.

Our soul can choose to preserve its own human life or to die and be raised in Christ.

Together, our spirit and soul constitute our "inner man." Our inner man is invisible to the human eye, being housed in the "outward man."

It is our opinion, after reading the testimonies of those persons who have been near death and have been revived, that our inner man has a distinct form (not a body but a form). When we die, our spiritual form, the form of our inner man, can be seen by others of the spirit realm and also by ourselves.

Perhaps Plato and other philosophers were correct in teaching that the material realm is an outward expression of what is true in the realm of spirits. Our outward man may be, to a certain extent, a reflection of our inner man.

This concept appears to be borne out by the experience of the rich man in Hell. Notice that the rich man, although not in the body but existing only in his inner man, was tormented by the flames, was thirsty, and had a tongue. These facts are worthy of thought as we contemplate the nature of the spirit realm, and the state of the person after physical death, after he loses his outward man.

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (Luke 16:24)

To be continued.