The Fullness of Salvation 8
Saved from Bodily Corruption to Bodily In corruption
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. (I Corinthians 15:53)
Two bodies are involved in the resurrection from the dead. The first body is the one we have now. It will be made alive by the Holy Spirit who is dwelling in us.
The second body is a house formed from the substance of eternal life. The "weight" of the house of glory depends on the degree to which we have borne in our body the suffering of Christ (II Corinthians 4:17).
The spirits of those who attain the first resurrection, the resurrection that will take place when Christ appears in the clouds of glory, will enter their "sleeping" bodies and raise them from the grave. If they are physically alive at the time of the Lord’s coming they will be changed into immortality. Then they will ascend to meet Jesus in the air.
At some point, whether before or after their mortal body is made alive (probably before), they will be clothed with their house from Heaven.
Those who are raised at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age, in the second resurrection, will stand before Christ and be judged according to their works. Those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be brought forward to eternal life in the new earth. Those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire.
It is obvious, if one considers the first six aspects of salvation, that the kind of body we receive and when we receive it depend on the progress we have made in the Divine redemption.
We are not resurrected by grace, or by "faith," except as faith is defined as following God in stern obedience. The faith that redeems us has little to do with our agreement with doctrine. True faith is our obedience to what God has revealed to us.
The nature of our resurrection depends directly on what has taken place previously in our personality. The body we are given will reflect what we have become in Christ. This is so unlike today where our physical body is a poor indication of what we are. The ugliest, most corrupt person may be housed in a magnificent body.
It will not be so in the Kingdom. The body we are given will reflect what we are. We are "revealed" before the Judgment Seat of Christ and then we are rewarded according to our works. How just and righteous God is!
Now that we have considered the seven aspects of salvation, let us speak of how, where, when, to whom, and to what degree each of the seven is issued.
Salvation from guilt to forgiveness is given us on the basis of the shed blood of our sin-offering—Christ. When we accept the atonement made by Him our sins are laid on Him and we bear the guilt of them no longer. This takes place wherever and whenever the Gospel is preached to us.
Salvation from spiritual death to eternal life comes to us as we receive Christ. Jesus is eternal Life and the only eternal Life. As we enter to a greater extent into Him, and He enters to a greater extent into us, we grow in eternal life.
It is the writer’s opinion that we will continue to grow in eternal life after we die. Jesus said, "Whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die." It seems likely that we do not cease to live and grow in Jesus after we die physically. We continue growing with the Life that comes from the Head. We continue learning, teaching, serving, fellowshipping, ministering, and doing all else that pertains to eternal life.
"Whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die" . Do we truly believe this?
The Lord’s elect vary greatly in the amount of eternal life they possess. This will continue to be true in the ages to come. There shall be trees of life and crowns of life.
Salvation from spiritual bondage to spiritual freedom is brought about by the removal of unclean spirits from us. The removal is accomplished through the authority of the blood of the cross and the power of the Spirit of God. Often we are brought into fiery sufferings that aid in breaking our spiritual bondages.
Moral bondages are spiritual in origin. There is no Scripture that implies we are released from moral bondages on the basis of physical death. Moral bondages must be cast out by the Lord, they do not leave us because we die physically.
The Lord brings the individual to the time and place of judgment. The believer must confess and repent of his bondages, as the Spirit directs. All persons in the new earth will be free of demonic bondages. Satan and his workers will be confined to the Lake of Fire. They will not be permitted to emerge and influence the citizens of the new world.
Salvation from disobedience to obedience occurs as we choose to follow the Lord. It is the writer’s opinion that growth in obedience to the degree required of the eternal rulers can be attained only in the present world. We base our opinion on the fact that Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered in the world.
The present world is peculiarly suited to the development of rulers because it is so difficult to gain dominion here. The concept appears to be that if we can overcome what comes against us here, we then will be fit to rule in the ages to come when the same difficulties are not present.
The present world is the proving ground for rulers. The gems that gleam in the foundations of the wall of the new Jerusalem are formed in the heat and pressure of life on earth.
Salvation from Satan’s image to Christ’s image begins in the world but will continue into eternity, we believe. How long will it take for us to come into the complete image of our Father? It seems likely we will be growing into the image of God forever. Christ is far greater than any impoverished idea we hold at this time. The Father of Christ is greater yet. We are the merest specks of dust by comparison.
The process of transformation begins now by the Divine enablement’s and virtues we have described previously. It may be true that the degree of image attained will continue to vary from person to person as it does today.
As children in a human family bear the family resemblance but may vary greatly in personality, abilities, and calling, so it is true that God’s children will bear the family resemblance but will vary greatly in personality, abilities, and calling.
Salvation from emptiness to fullness takes place as the Father and the Son through the Spirit come to us and make us Their eternal dwelling place, Their home, Their temple, Their chariot. As we keep the Word of Christ, Christ is formed in us. As Christ is formed in us, God and Christ come to dwell in the holy habitation that has been formed in us.
God judges the living and the dead. When the hour of judgment came it began in the house of God: not just the house of God on the earth but the house of God in Heaven as well as on the earth.
As the seasons arrive for the spiritual fulfilment of the several feasts of the Lord (Leviticus 23:4) the elect are brought forward in the plan of redemption. We all are being brought forward together and will come to perfection together—old-covenant and new-covenant saints.
Those who have died in Christ continue to live as witnesses and, we believe, continue to profit because of the revelation of Christ coming forth through the apostles and prophets on the earth.
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (Hebrews 11:40-12:1)
We who are alive today have profited from the faithfulness of those who have gone before us. We think that those who have gone before us are now profiting from our faithfulness. The whole Body of Christ is built by that which every part supplies.
All of the elect have come to Mount Zion, whether they are living before Christ in the Spirit or are spending their appointed years in the crucible of the earth.
But ye are come unto mount Sion, . . . . (Hebrews 12:22)
It is not that we shall come to Mount Zion in the future; we are there now in spiritual reality. We have come to Mount Zion.
It is the season now for the spiritual fulfilments of the memorial of blowing of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:24-43). The personal spiritual fulfilments of the last three feasts are taking place in all the members of the Body of Christ in preparation for the coming of the Lord.
When Jesus appears, the royal priesthood will appear with Him, not just those who are in Heaven or those who are on the earth, but all the priesthood. The royal priesthood throughout the ages, as is the case today, have been a godly remnant. Israel may be as the sand of the sea but the true witnesses of God have been small in number.
Every member of the Body of Christ must receive the Divine revelation, and the authority, power, and virtue, as they proceed from God through Christ. The whole Body is coming to maturity as one Wife of the Lamb.
As additional members of the elect are born on the earth they are brought forward to maturity so the Body may be ready for the appearing of Christ to the nations of the earth.
Christ is entering the members of His Body in the present hour, preparing each of us for the full indwelling of God. He is casting out what does not belong in the eternal Temple of God, in the Wife of the Lamb.
The entering of God into us will continue to increase until the fullness is revealed at the time of the appearing of Christ in the clouds of glory. We are growing together until the fullness has been attained to and received.
Salvation From bodily corruption to bodily incorruption will occur when the seventh trumpet sounds. The dead in Christ, the saints who are living before God in the spirit realm, will be raised from bodily corruption and put on bodily incorruption.
Then the living in Christ, the saints on the earth at that time, will be changed from bodily corruption to bodily incorruption.
But only the victorious saints will put on bodily incorruption when the Lord Jesus returns. The remainder of dead mankind will not have an opportunity to put on bodily incorruption until the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age (Revelation 20:4-6).
The rewards of rulership go to the victorious saints. The Scripture is clear on this point.
Several times in the New Testament the concept of rewards is presented. One of the principal rewards we shall receive is the kind of heavenly body that clothes our resurrected mortal frame. There can be little doubt that each heavenly body will reflect the spiritual maturity of the person who receives it (I Corinthians 15:41,42).
The body of the individual on the earth can be a deceiving picture of his true personality. It will not be so after the resurrection from the dead. Then, every person will receive the body that suits his personality. His true nature will be revealed.
Those who turn many to righteousness will shine as the stars. What we truly are will be brought into the open and seen by men and angels for the eternity of eternities.
Each person will be judged according to the gifts given to him or her. Those who use their talents well will be given more Divine virtue and enablement. Those who do not use their talents well will lose what they have been given and will face Divine wrath.
There is a danger in the current misunderstanding of the role of forgiveness in the Divine redemption. The prevailing belief is that the bulk of salvation is denied us while we are living in the world.
It is assumed that all that is available to us now is forgiveness, accompanied by some eternal life and freedom. The remainder of redemption, the fullness of eternal life, deliverance from spiritual bondage, obedience to God, and conversion to the image of Christ, are assumed to be gifts that will be given us after we die or at some other vaguely outlined time in the future.
The concept is, we have forgiveness now and the rest will come later.
It indeed is true that we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit to a future day of redemption. But there is no passage of Scripture that implies that the day of redemption will take place in Heaven or as we rise to meet the Lord in the air.
It is our belief that the day of redemption will take place in the earth and that some aspects of it have begun already.
It does not require a great deal of insight in order to understand the danger of waiting to die to go to Heaven in order to be redeemed, if the Holy Spirit has begun the process now. It reminds one of the parable of the ten virgins.
The transformation of our personality takes place, not on the basis of where we are located but on the basis of seasons of Divine working as the Holy Spirit deals with us personally. It is possible for us to miss the plan of redemption when it appears in its season if we are waiting to receive redemption in Heaven.
If we are looking to physical death to make us ardent followers and companions of the Lord Jesus we are acting apart from any basis in Scripture or reason.
Now is the day of salvation. It is now that the Lord Jesus is coming to His Church and cleansing the members of His Body from sin. Seasons of refreshing and restoration are proceeding from the Presence of the Lord.
Soon the blood of sinners will be flowing like water. Judgment is coming because the nations of the world have refused to obey the moral laws of God. They are not recognizing the kingship of the Lord Jesus.
They are not doing the things He has commanded. God is not pleased with the disobedience of the nations and will demonstrate His wrath.
In the day of the Lord’s fierce anger we must be able to walk in two worlds at the same time. We must have our eyes open on the earth but especially in Heaven. We must be assured constantly that our loved ones are safe in the arms of Jesus.
We must live and move and have our being in Heaven at the right hand of God if we expect to be of any use to mankind during the days of judgment that are ahead.
Given the definition of salvation as the spiritual and bodily transformation of the believer, it is easy to discern the folly of claiming that when a person is saved he always is saved, that he cannot be lost.
What meaning does such a belief have in light of the fact that salvation is a transformation of what we are in personality and behaviour? Are we saying when we are forgiven and have received a portion of eternal life as a pledge we will enter the glory of the kingdom without having been transformed in personality? It is our transformation that is the Kingdom!
Is it only the Gentiles who will experience spiritual and bodily transformation? How about Abraham and Elijah? Are they doomed to miss the plan of redemption by being a Jewish kingdom (as is commonly taught), or are they part of a "Gentile church"? Can you see how absurd the doctrine of the "rapture" into Heaven of a "Gentile church" is, given the true nature of salvation?
Salvation began for Abraham and Elijah when Christ sprinkled His blood upon and before the Most Holy Place in Heaven in the Presence of the Father. You and I received forgiveness when the Holy Spirit made us aware of that same sprinkling and we received the atonement by faith.
The God of Heaven is moving forward in His eternal plan to create for Himself a living temple. The work of judgment has been continuing since the first century, for Peter states: "the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God."
From the present hour forward the glory and revelation will increase until the house of God comes to perfection as one whole, and then is filled to fullness with the Glory of the Lord.
At the sounding of the seventh trumpet all God’s witnesses will stand on their feet, beginning with the righteous Abel (Revelation 11:11).
All the victorious saints will come together: Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, Peter, and you and I if we have cooperated with the Holy Spirit in the work of redemption. We all shall come to perfection together.
Our feet are on the pathway that leads to the fullness of the Presence of the Father. We have only just begun the process of deliverance from all that is of Satan to union with all that is of God.
Forgiveness, life, liberty, obedience, Christ’s image, the fullness of God—all dwelling in a body like that of the glorified body of the Lord Jesus: this is the fullness of salvation, the transformation of what we are in personality and in behaviour.
Then there lies before us an eternity of fellowship with God, the saints, and the holy angels. We shall increase continually in fruitfulness, dominion, and growth in God’s image, in an environment that will cause the first Paradise to appear threadbare by comparison. The riches of the Father will be ours through Christ. The nations of saved peoples of the earth will be our inheritance.
All we have known and loved on the earth will be there, waiting for the new life to begin. All that is worthy that we have given up for the sake of the Gospel will be handed to us, now greatly magnified in glory and desirability.
A few more weary steps. An abiding for a little while longer in our prison of weakness, frustration, and confusion. Then, glory upon glory with all those who likewise have borne their cross, who have waited patiently for the promises made to them.
Christ is the Alpha. He also is the Omega. He is the Author and the Finisher. What He began so gloriously on the cross He will bring to completion and perfection—not one detail being overlooked.
He is faithful who has promised. Let us take up our cross and follow after Him.
The land of promise, Canaan, the inheritance, the goal of our salvation, has an internal dimension and an external dimension. The internal dimension is the change in the man. The external dimension is the change in the man’s environment.
Our present writing has discussed the change in the man, the internal "Canaan."
The external dimension consists of all the inheritance of Christ (for we are coheirs with Him) in a wonderful Paradise of glory. In particular, we inherit the earth, the nations of the earth, the new Jerusalem, and the new heaven and new earth God will create in the future.
Of all the areas of the current Christian misunderstanding of redemption, the most desperately in need of clarification concerns the fact that the internal inheritance must be attained before the external inheritance can be given to us.
It is useless to bring an unredeemed person into a redeemed environment. To bring an unchanged Adam back into Paradise is to invite a repeat of the original disaster.
Current Christian teaching implies that the Christian salvation, at least in the present life, is ninety-nine percent forgiveness. However, to forgive an individual and then not to transform him is to leave him unprepared for the new world of righteousness. Whether or not God has forgiven him, he still cannot be brought into a redeemed environment. To do so, as we have stated, is to invite disaster.
The assumption of Christian doctrine is that the necessary transformation of the believer takes place after he dies, or when the Lord comes, or some combination of these two.
But except for the transformation of the body, there is no scriptural basis for the concept that God waits until we die to transform us or that He will bring about the necessary changes in our character at the coming of the Lord.
The understanding of the writer is that the bringing of the saved to the fullness of redemption is taking place as "seasons of refreshing" come from the Presence of the Lord.
The critical issue is not where we are when the blessing of increased redemption is brought to us, but the faith and diligence with which we respond to the Lord’s invitation when it comes.
There is no basis for the belief that those of us who have demonstrated unbelief and spiritual lethargy in the present world will be filled with faith and diligence when we pass into the realm of spirits. After all, rebellion and sin originated in the spirit world.
All redemption is in Christ, not in Heaven. Redemption is in Heaven only to the extent Christ is in Heaven. It is not going to Heaven that transforms the believer, it is coming to Jesus that transforms the believer.
Let us look to the Lord now—today. Now is the day of salvation as far as we are concerned. We shall be held accountable for the grace being presented to us today. Those who neglect the current salvation will not escape the anger of the Lord.
The land of promise is before us. The Body of Christ is ready to cross Jordan, ready to begin its assault on the forces inhabiting our land—both the interior land of our personality, and then our exterior land of God’s created universe. Now it is time to take possession of the several areas of personal redemption.
After we gain the fullness of victory there is a whole world of wonder and glory waiting to be occupied by the sons of God.