Working Out Our Salvation' 5

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:26—NIV)

What then is true? It is true that we enter the program of salvation by receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, repenting of our sinful behavior, and being baptized into His death and His resurrection. After entering the program of salvation we must live each day in such a manner that we are partaking continually of the Life of Christ. We must live by Him as He lives by the Father.

As we abide in Christ the chains of Satan are broken in our personality. We begin to practice righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God. The Christian salvation has to do with a change in our behavior, with the way we live. The righteous live by faith.

It is the change from ungodly behavior to godly behavior that itself is salvation. It is the change from the image of Satan and union with Satan to the image of God and union with God that constitutes the Divine redemption. If we present ourselves to the Lord each day so this change may take place, then we will be spared in the Day of God's wrath.

To state we are saved by faith apart from works is to misunderstand God's salvation. We do not purchase salvation by performing works of righteousness, as Paul taught us. Rather it is true that the Divine salvation always produces righteous behavior. Eternal life follows righteous behavior.

It is not true that to be saved is to go to Paradise after we die and live there forever, that Heaven is our "eternal home."

What then is true? To be saved is to be spared the wrath of God so we can enter the incredible joys of the Kingdom of God, of the new creation over which Christ and His saints will reign to the eternity of eternities. The Kingdom of God, the new creation, consists of the physical realm filled with righteous, obedient spirits. The new Jerusalem will be located on the new earth, not in the spirit realm.

It is not true that any moment there will be a "rapture" in which all who have made a confession of faith in the Lord Jesus will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and return with Him to Heaven, to their mansion in Paradise.

What then is true? It is true that the Lord Jesus will be revealed from Heaven at the end of the present age, that is, in the Day of the Lord, the Day of Wrath. At that time the Lord Jesus will gather together His elect from one end of the heavens to the other.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven [the heavens] to the other. (Matthew 24:31)

There are many millions of people in the spirit realm, and the elect who are deceased appear to be scattered throughout the heavens.

There will be relatively few members of the elect on the earth when the Lord appears. The saints remaining on the earth at that time will have to be changed from mortality to immortality while standing on their feet. It will require great faith if we are to keep our eyes on the Lord while this change is taking place.

This is why the Lord commanded us to "Remember Lot's wife!" If we look back we will be destroyed by the wrath of God as was Lot's wife. She had been saved from Sodom but then was destroyed because she disobeyed the Lord.

Continued. Working Out Our Salvation' 6