The Fullness of Salvation 7
Salvation From Spiritual Death to Eternal Life
We have stated that forgiveness through the blood of Christ is well known to us and has been emphasized by the Christian ministry.
We understand also that God through the Lord Jesus has given us eternal life.
Eternal life is a familiar term among present-day Christians, but our definition, our understanding of eternal life, sometimes is incorrect.
We tend to think of eternal life as a legal state rather than what it is—a kind of life .
Forgiveness is a legal state but eternal life is a kind of life force, as well as being union with God. All spirits have eternal existence, but all spirits do not have eternal spiritual life nor are all spirits in union with the Father and Jesus.
There is biologic life and then there is spiritual life. All angels have some kind of spiritual life, either of God or of darkness. Animals have biologic life. Man, unlike any other creature of God, has two kinds of life—biologic and spiritual.
Before an individual receives Christ he is alive as an animal but dead as a child of God. He has biologic life and a spiritual nature but no Divine eternal life. He is alive biologically but dead as far as God’s Life is concerned.
Christ is eternal Life. When we receive Him we are born again of His Life. Now we are alive biologically and spiritually.
When we die physically and are resurrected we no longer shall be "man" in the adamic, flesh and blood sense. We shall be as the angels, our personality being animated spiritually, but unlike the angels in that we shall possess flesh and bones.
The believers of our day must understand that eternal life is not a legally assigned state. Eternal life is the Life of God that comes to us through Christ. It is easy, especially when we are first saved, for material possessions to crowd out the eternal life of our new man and slay what has been begun in us.
It may be true in the wealthy nations of our day that most Christians either have lost their eternal life, or else have such a meager portion of eternal spiritual life they are unable to overcome Satan.
Eternal life is born in us but, like biologic life, it must be fed. Man, being a dual being, cannot live by bread alone. If he neglects prayer, the study of the Scriptures, gathering together with fervent saints, he will die spiritually. The believer who lives solely in the flesh, in biologic life, who neglects the cultivation of the eternal life that has been born in him, will die spiritually.
Of the seven aspects of redemption, the only one handed to us is forgiveness. The remaining six are not assigned legally. They are experienced. They are not legal states that exist in the mind of God. They are changes in our personality.
Such is the case with eternal life. Eternal life is not imputed (ascribed) to us, or preserved in us by grace, or given us when we die, or given us in Heaven, or given us when the Lord comes. Eternal life is born in us when we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior. From that point forward we must sow to eternal life, nourishing it carefully with the aspects of grace that come to us from Heaven.
If we do not do this, choosing instead to sow to our flesh, trusting God will raise us in that day by his grace, we will experience very great remorse, if not destruction, in the Day of the Lord. It is not doctrine or grace that will raise us in the Day of Christ, it is eternal life that will raise us in the Day of the Lord.
Eternal life is Divine Substance, not endless spiritual existence ascribed to us because of our profession of faith.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken make alive your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)
The Lord Jesus Christ has come so we may have eternal resurrection life and that we may have it in abundance. He who is wise will devote the prime attention and energies of his life to the task of attaining the fullness of eternal life—the first resurrection from among the dead (Philippians 3:11).
The foolish believer will neglect the eternal life that has been born in him and will occupy himself with eating, sleeping, working, playing, and reproducing. He will insure that his animal existence is sustained in comfort as far as possible but will give only token attention to attaining the fullness of eternal life.
He believes, because of erroneous teaching, that eternal existence in Heaven has been ascribed to him because of his belief in Christ.
If an individual has eternal spiritual life he has it wherever he is, whether on earth or in the realm of spirits. Eternal life is a kind of life, not a place where the believer goes when he or she dies. The person who is filled with eternal life is able to overcome Satan, the world, and his own lusts and self-will. He reveals in his personality the righteousness, love, joy, peace, and patience of the Kingdom of God.
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)
The above admonition was addressed to "the churches of Galatia."
To this point we have discussed salvation from guilt to forgiveness, and salvation from spiritual death to eternal life. Now let us proceed to the third aspect of the redemption in Christ.