One distinction that Jesus made regarding those who would not get into heaven, is in His rebuke of the religious, when He says that they are clean outside, but a tomb filled with bones inside. On top of this, Jesus commands that anyone who follows Him, must hate his own life. And many have said that what we are supposed to hate, is the sinful side of ourselves, thinking that we can then have works of righteousness, and truly love ourselves. Jesus, in one translation, also said that the religious were lawless. So what gives? How can someone who claims to have lawfulness, be lawless? Because our leaving of Egypt and Babylon, and our entering in, can only happen spiritually first. Many of the endeavors of the religious, take advantage of others, even though they themselves have things rationalized in their own mind, about how good they think they are. The emphasis that Jesus gives is first spiritual, and what happens with people, is they start to think: "Well when does it get physical?" And they say, "We are physical creatures." God shows no partiality, so He is not below or above cutting away the religious, even though they might seem to be in the right. Our works are supposed to first be spiritual, and spirituality, again, doesn't just mean being moral, and having no filthiness of the flesh; as if to say that the fruit of being spiritual is found in being clean outwardly. The truth is that we have to even die to the good that we think we have, and that God has given us, and sacrifice our whole entire physical self, so that we can spiritually receive. And it is in these times that we reap spiritual beauty for our spiritual and physical ashes, and may take the spoil before we enter in, in the spiritual and physical.

One way of looking at being cold and being hot, is found in seeing hotness as perfection, and coldness as imperfection. The lawless that is with the religious, claims to be hot, even though most religious people don't think that it is possible to be perfect. But they are wrong, because we can have spiritual perfection, and have it given into our mortal flesh, even though our mortal flesh may again have corruption in it, until we receive new bodies. Our strength then is found in being spiritually perfect, and our strength is made perfect in weakness, as we receive grace and mercy for our imperfections.

The essential aspect in all of this, is that when our works become things that we have to do, then they are not really in the grace of freedom, and freedom of grace. Some people know this, but still try to say that we have to have works to be saved, and this is wrong. So wrong, that this was actually what the apostles were fighting against in the days of the early church. There is not a thing we could do to gain citizenship in heaven, accept live by believing in God, and having the spiritual faith which He gives through belief. The main aspect I am pointing out in this paragraph, is that our works should be natural, and not have to be things that we force, or else we have fallen from grace and freedom; namely, the Spirit of liberty. Some people still might say something like "I have to force myself sometimes, and that is not wrong because I should do the right thing even if I don't feel like it." And this kind of excuse, I believe, falls under what Paul said, in saying that some people have a type of godliness, but deny His power. In all truth, no matter what we do spiritually, or physically, if we are trying to use our strength to please God, we do not have the power of God. And this is what I believe entering in spiritually first teaches us, because when we have our soul enter in, it does not happen by any physical work, but by spirituality.

I think that the quickest way to spot sin, is when there is hypocrisy. And it is easy to become hypocritical, no matter what kind of persons we think we are, or try to be. But the hypocrisy of the religious, is found in how they attempt to purify the world, quoting verses like, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, but lose his soul?" And the hypocrisy comes in, when the religious attempt to judge and condemn people in the world, when their own souls haven't even entered in. And the soul entering in, is the first part of the race, and fight of faith, just as the NT letters say that rules are of no value in dealing with the corruption in the flesh, and that the war is waged against our soul. The soul itself, is the very container for our spiritual spirit and heart, and this is why it has so much relevance. Entering in spiritually is 'the little' that gets rewarded by receiving more, as the parable of the minas and talents shows.

Sometimes, honestly, I have to choose between sin and sin. I have to choose between sin A, or sin B, when sin shouldn't even be an option. And this is what is happening if we are ever faced with physically sinning, to attempt to fully sacrifice our physical lives, so that our spiritual life may enter in. And one argument connected to this, is found in Paul saying that we don't sin so that grace may aound, and that we don't do evil that good may come. But the main factor in that, is found in whether or not we have already left Egypt or not, and whether or not we are going backwards, and not forwards, no matter how fast or slow we are going. But I also believe that this falls under the verse, of our strength (Spiritual life) being made perfect in weakness (our imperfections). Sometimes I have to decide whether or not I want to embark on a sin I don't yet have, or continue with the sin I do have, as with the choice between sin A, or sin B. And this falls under the story of 'counting the cost' which I think is found in Luke 14. Bascially, if the issue comes down to salvation, then if we come up short in counting the cost, and have to make peace with the enemy, we could end up not getting saved. Someone could say that we should never have to choose sin, because Paul said that God always gives us a way of escape. But these people should then entertain whether or not they can be perfect, because if we can always choose to not sin, then we should have no sin, and even have no works of sin. This argument is based on whether or not we fully consciously know what we are doing before we do it, which is what most people thought Hebrews was talking about with 'willfully sinning.' And some people will tell you that you have to repent of having sinned AGAINST God to be saved. And there are probably a lot of beliefs between these things. There is an amount of knowledge that we have before we do things, but what Paul was saying about having the way of escape was speaking about the big picture, telling us that we can be saved out of any temptation, sin, or death that we are in, even if we first, and or second, and or third, fall into it.