The Daily Word of Righteousness

Imputation and Transformation, continued

And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways, And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3—NASB)

We firmly believe that as soon as God's firstfruits redeemed from the earth (Revelation, Chapter 14) have themselves been transformed by being discipled so that they are without guile and follow the Lamb wherever He goes, God will use them to disciple, to transform, the remainder of God's elect.

The Church, the Body of Christ, is one whole. It will be built to perfection by the working of every part.

Then the whole Church, the new Jerusalem, will have the task of transforming the saved nations of the world. Thus the new Jerusalem, the holy city, will be the moral light of the world.

The saved nations will go up to Jerusalem to be discipled, to be transformed by the Word of God. The change in them will be evidenced by the cessation of war.

People are not transformed by a magical grace. They are transformed by learning and then "eating" the Word of God, the Word to the mind and then the Word to the heart.

There are several passages of the Scriptures that point toward the transforming of the Church.

We have a young sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister for the day she is spoken for? If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar. (Song of Solomon 8:8,9—NIV)

The above passage is referring, we believe, to the building up of the less mature "sisters" by the fully mature sister mentioned later in the passage.

When we speak of being built up in the future we are not indicating that believers will have a "second chance" to please God. There is no second chance. You have to obey God when He comes to you.

To be "lost" means God has decided to remove you from the program of transformation. He has judged you unworthy of the Kingdom of God.

Please note also that in speaking of our growth in the ages to come we are not suggesting any kind of Purgatory. The concept of Purgatory is that we are not admitted to Paradise until we have suffered in the next world.

When speaking of being discipled, being transformed, we are not referring to admittance to Paradise. We are explaining that until we are transformed we are neither competent nor eligible to assume the roles and tasks of the Kingdom which have been prepared for us. We are not eligible because the Word of God assigns the roles and tasks to the victorious saints. We are not competent because we ourselves are still in need of ministry. We can't rule the nations until Christ is seated firmly on the throne of our personality and we with Him.

None of this has to do with entrance to Paradise but to the operation of the Kingdom of God in the earth.

To be continued.