Even after deciding to pay the price to buy the Heavenly Pearl (the Lord’s Kingdom-Life), which will entail a real turning from the independent and self-sufficient ways of the world, it will not be easy to stay on course. In other words, finding the Pearl and deciding to buy it is not enough! We will need to surrender everything from our old independent and self-sufficient way of life before we can receive it. (Matt. 13:45-46; 11:27-30)
So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has {from his independent and self-sufficient way of life} cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:33)
Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away… How shall we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord… (Heb. 2:1, 3)
The members of Christ’s Body will generally require considerable instruction and exhortation before they will be in a condition to have the Lord’s Kingdom-Life fully established within their hearts. We learn this lesson by the way Paul taught the true gospel message in the first century. He knew there was a need for a real dying out to the old self-sufficient way of life. We therefore find him exhorting his pupils to press forward in their faith until they had entered into the Kingdom-Life of promise:
And when they {Paul and Barnabas} had preached the Gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:21-22 Emphasis added)
Similar to the pilgrimage taken by God’s people in the Old Testament, which is a Spiritual type used by God to teach Christians in this age of fulfillment (1 Cor. 10:1-12), the children of faith in the New Testament will pass through a time of testing before they enter into the Life of promise. And, as Jesus has stated, many of His followers will end up turning away from this walk of faith during the time when tribulations are being used to strip away their self-sufficient spirit. “For many, I say to you, will seek to enter {the Kingdom-Life} and will not be able to.” (Luke 13:24) “They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” (Luke 8:13)
Instead of putting the flesh-life to death by the Spirit, many believers and followers actually go back to living by the flesh. This is why Christians need to be instructed in the Ways of the Spirit and exhorted to press forward in their faith until God has established His Kingdom-life within their hearts, when and where they become disciples of Christ Jesus. (Heb. 3:7 – 4:11)
For if you live according to the flesh {by your own sufficiency after being reconciled to God} you will die {have a spiritual life that keeps dying}; but if by the Spirit {as regenerate Christians} you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live {in the Kingdom-Life}. (Rom. 8:13)
Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pet. 1:10-11 Emphasis added)
The Lord’s Kingdom-Life will be fully established within the hearts of Christ’s believers, followers and disciples when they have died to the fleshly ways of fallen man. Every disciple will therefore need to be exhorted to continue in the Way of faith while God is stripping away their old self-sufficient way of life in the time of tribulation and testing, while perfecting His Salvation within them.
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