Trumpet Ministries Working Out Our Salvation
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The salvation that is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ has a specific beginning, a specific program, and a specific conclusion. We are not "saved" until we endure to the end.
One of the harmful errors of current Christian teaching is the emphasis placed on an initial acceptance of Christ as our Savior. In fact, accepting Christ has become a ticket to Heaven rather than a start on the narrow way that leads to eternal life.
We do not just slide into salvation by trying to reform our behavior. There must come a specific point in time when we decide to trust in Christ rather than ourselves for salvation. We must place our faith in the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.
We now can say we are "saved," if we like. However, it is more accurate to say that Christ has forgiven us and now we are going to follow Him and walk in newness of life.
Part of our misunderstanding arises from our definition of what it means to be "saved." When we define being saved as holding a ticket that will admit us to Heaven when we die, we are in error. Holding a ticket that will admit us to Heaven when we die is not what it means to be saved.
To be saved, in the scriptural sense of the word, is to be saved from the world and brought into the Kingdom of God; to be saved from the lusts and passions of our sinful personality and brought into freedom from the bondages of sin; to be saved from our adamic will and thinking, and all idolatry, and brought into the rest of God, the abiding place in the center of God's fiery Person.
To be saved is to acquire a hatred of wickedness and a love for iron righteousness, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to God.
We have seen then that salvation is a lifelong discipleship. Each day we should be further from the chains of worldliness, lust, and self-will. Each day a part of our adamic personality should die and the Life of Christ should be formed in its place. Each day we should be further from the person and works of Satan and closer to the Person and works of God.
Receiving Christ is the beginning of our transformation from Adam to Christ; from the old creation to the new creation. Each day we are pressing into more abundant eternal life. Our adamic personality is decreasing and Christ is increasing. Each day God is making all things new in our personality. The gate is small and the way is constricted that lead to eternal life, that lead to the Father. And we are going through that gate and walking on that path every day.
We finally will be "saved" when, in the day of resurrection, we receive back our body from the dead, and our body then is clothed with the eternal, incorruptible resurrection Life that proceeds from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is because it is very easy to start on the way of righteousness and then to be deceived back into the cesspool from which we were rescued. We have to watch carefully that no one take our crown. The way to God is filled with pitfalls and snares of every description. We do not fear and tremble because Christ cannot keep what has been committed to Him; rather we fear and tremble lest we be deceived and led away from the covenant we have made with God.
Peter informs us that the righteous are saved with difficulty. The fiery trials mentioned in the fourth chapter of the Book of First Peter are for the purpose of driving worldliness, lust, and rebellion against God from our personality. How many people have started out believing in Christ, and then have turned away because the path that leads to life brought pain to them and they were required to give up that which they desired so intensely!
Yet, it is the way of the transgressor that is hard. It is true that the way of the disciple requires much self-denial. But everyone suffers. We cannot escape suffering by turning away from Christ.
There were three crosses on the hill. God was crucified. The saved thief was crucified. The unsaved thief was crucified.
You are going to suffer while you are in the world. If you spend your entire life attempting to have your own way, to save your own life, to escape suffering, you will betray those who trust in you, harm many others in your mad plunge toward self-gratification, and when you die (or perhaps even before you die) you will suffer at the hands of an angry God who is disgusted with your lack of integrity.
Let us, therefore, patiently work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. It will not be too long before we stand in joy before a glad King who invites us to share His Kingdom.
A few more weary steps and we shall be home. Don't quit. He has kept for you the best wine until now.
"I have told you these things, so in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, (Philippians 2:12)
Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. (I Peter 4:1,2)
So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. (I Peter 4:19)
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