What salvation is

Our idea of what salvation is, is in great need of an overhaul. We are not scriptural in our understanding.

Salvation is transformation. In many instances, where the term salvation is employed in the scriptures we can substitute the word transformation. This will give us a much clearer picture of what salvation actually is and will put an end to vain arguments about whether we can be "lost" once we are "saved."

There are a few instances in the New Testament where the term "saved" means primarily preservation in the Day of Wrath: that is, our spirit, soul, and body are not cast away from the Presence of God in the Day of the Lord. We are permitted to enter the new heaven and earth reign of Jesus Christ.

But mere preservation, as desirable as this is, is a "Rahab" type salvation. That is to say it is not the salvation of the royal priesthood, of those who are being trained by the Lord to invade and occupy the land of promise.

The full salvation of the royal priesthood is indicated by the Apostle Paul who, toward the end of his life, was pressing forward toward the resurrection out from among the dead. Paul was not seeking to escape wrath at this point but to be prepared to return with Christ in the fullness of resurrection glory when it is time for the establishing of the Kingdom of God on the earth.

The full salvation of the royal priesthood is emphasized by the writer of the Book of Hebrews, who exhorted the Christian Jews to press into the rest of God. The writer was not speaking here of basic salvation from wrath.

By full salvation we mean change into the moral image of Jesus Christ and entrance into untroubled union with the Father through Christ.

Such change and such union are not frills we add to basic salvation. They are what salvation is for those who are called to be the brothers of Christ.

Salvation is our change and our union with God. The change and the union are not so we can go to Heaven but so we can abide in the bosom of the Father where Christ dwells.

In order to dwell in God we must be transformed in personality. Rahab and her family were covered by the blood, so to speak, as portrayed by the scarlet cord used to identify her house. But Rahab was not a member of the royal priesthood of God until she married Salmon. She was not a partaker of the Law, of the Tabernacle, of the sacrifices.

Rahab is a type of those who are saved as they respond to the testimony of God's witnesses, His priesthood.

The new covenant, which is made with the Israel of God, the royal priesthood, is one of change, of transformation from the adamic nature to the new life-giving Nature of Jesus Christ. Salvation is the new creation.

Because of our past concept of salvation we may think our transformation is for the purpose of going to Heaven. It is not. We are not changed so we can go to Heaven. We are changed so we can be with Jesus Christ in God for eternity; so we can fulfill the many roles and tasks of the Kingdom.

We may ask, "If I am not changed am I still saved?" If we were to ask such a question it would reveal we still do not understand what salvation is.

It is the transformation itself that is salvation. Being saved does not mean we will be admitted to Heaven when we die. Being saved is a process that removes us from the person and ways of Satan and brings us into the Person and ways of God. We are saved from the lost condition into which Adam and Eve brought their descendants.

We are being saved each day if we are consenting to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. If we are not consenting to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit we are not being saved. If salvation is moral transformation, how can we be being saved if we are not being transformed?

Even the righteous are saved with difficulty. This is because it is hard for us to let go of our worldliness, our lusts, and our self-will. But if we do not let go of the sin that is in us we are not permitting Christ to save us.

We have to work out our salvation each day, with fear and trembling. We need to get serious with the Lord because we are entering an age of moral horrors.

Our traditions concerning mansions in Heaven and walking around forever in our golden slippers, carrying our harps, possessing backyards full of diamonds, may have sufficed for the Moses era. But since such ideas are not scriptural they will not stand under the pressures that even now are beginning to be brought upon the Church.

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