THESIS #62 of 95 - Biblical salvation is the restoration of divine communion whilst still incarnate through spiritual regeneration and devotion to Christ and His teaching. This is what is meant by being raised to eternal life. It is for fallen man to become re-acquainted with God, His Son and Spirit before physical death (or Christ’s return) so that the called chosen and faithful may be fitted for future glory as the corporate Bride of Christ.
BIBLICAL REFERENCES
Jn17:3 THIS is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent
Jn6:53 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves
Rom7:24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will SET ME FREE FROM THE BODY OF THIS DEATH? Thanks be to God; it is through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I with my mind serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin
Rom8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters
Rev19:7 Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself
Rev3:21 The one who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne.
1Thes4:4- That each of you know how to POSSESS HIS OWN VESSEL in sanctification and honour
Rom8:23 Also we who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for adoption as sons, namely THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODY!!!
COMMENTS
The last few theses have identified what gospel salvation is not, i.e., the means by which a soul can enter heaven. This thesis defines what salvation in Christ really is. The selected texts indicate what such salvation is from, what it is for, and why proportionally few shall attain it. Also, how such a limitation is to be reconciled with Paul’s assertion that God desires that all people are ultimately soul-healed and come to a knowledge of the truth. And let’s face it, such broader benevolence is what one would expect to be the intention of the One whom the apostle John defines as Love personified.
SALVATION FROM WHAT?
In terms of what people are to be saved from, as just stated it is not “eternal damnation”. That in part is in view of the temporal nature of the problem from which we need to be delivered in order to fulfil our eternal destiny. In the case of the elect that is co-heirship with Jesus Christ, no less – to be His corporate bride in the ages to come (Rom8:17; Rev3:21; Rev19:7). It should be evident from that statement and its supporting texts why this is likely to be the preserve of the proportional few.
More precisely, what the elect, in fact all of us at some point, need to be delivered from is the physical transience and moral ineptitude of the procreated intellectual vessel every soul enters at birth. By “procreated intellectual vessel” I simply refer to the body and brain – the part of us that ceases to function when we die. The Apostle Paul refers to that same entity quite literally as “the flesh”, distinguishing it from our eternal spiritual essence that returns to God at brain death to await re-embodiment. The apostle also employs the term “body of this death” (Rom7:24) and “vessel” (2Cor4:7; 1Thes4:4). Approaching his death, the apostle Peter refers to the same as the “tent” or “tabernacle” that he must shortly set aside (2Pet1:13+14). The key point being it is a temporary feature of our never-ending existence that is the source of our problem with sin, as Paul’s usually misunderstood passage in Rom7 makes clear (vv14-25).
One reason that passage is so often misunderstood is because the human spirit to which Paul refers (which he is simply and literally distinguishing from the fleshly body and brain) is often deemed by translators and interpreters to be referring to the Holy Spirit. This is a matter I have worked through at some length in earlier posts, attaining support for the case from the Textus Receptus Greek [note 1].
SALVATION’S PURPOSE
In terms of the purpose of gospel salvation, only those who have a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ can be saved from Paul’s “body of this death” whilst still inhabiting it (Rom7:24,25). The rest will not escape its moral/spiritual and physical incumbrances (being the consequence of the Fall) until physical death. However, the problem post-mortem for those who fail to apprehend the gospel is that unless they die in infancy their vessel/tent that their souls inhabit is, through its innate concupiscence, likely to tarnish the spiritual essence it houses (1Pet2:11). Such a soul will be in no position to be “presented faultless before the presence of God’s glory with exceeding joy” (Jude1:24). Indeed, in some cases it will require a measure of salting/purging if it is to take any positive role in “a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2Pet3:13).
God’s elect on the other hand, being the called, chosen and faithful, having been empowered by the Holy Spirit and informed by divine teaching, should have disciplined themselves to follow the inclinations of their spirit rather than succumbing to the flesh so that they might be raised to eternal Life (Rom8:13). Partaking sacramentally in the Lord’s body and blood, their “consciences are purged from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb9:14; cf. 1Jn1:7). The generations of saints who have died shall be raised on the last day (Jn6:54; Rev20:6). They, together with faithful disciples who live to see the Parousia shall “meet Christ in the air” (1Thes4:17). Whether alive or resurrected, their souls will have been ready prepared for the unspeakable glories destined for the elect in the ages to come.
THE FRUIT OF CHRIST’S PASSION
As the previous post/thesis affirmed, divine grace and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ are the core elements of all human salvation. Yet the benefits of Christ’s Passion function at two levels: forensic and participatory. The former relates to God’s pardon of and propitiation for human sin throughout the world (1Jn2:2); the latter to the sanctification and imparting of spiritual vitality to the proportionally few who sacramentally partake of Christ’s body and blood (Jn6:53).
This is merely the bare bones of what I have been shown on this subject. Such a thesis pertaining to the very nature and purpose of gospel salvation needs to be supported by a workable synopsis of the whole bible. Thanks be to God, it has been.
[יִצְחָ֔ק]
NOTE #1 – For example, Rom8:4 – “The requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit”. The early scribes who penned the Textus Receptus knew Paul to be referring to the human spirit not the Holy Spirit, hence they wrote πνεῦμα rather than Πνεύμα [Rom8:4 Greek – ignore the translation, observe the Greek text; Likewise Rom8:1]. When Paul is clearly referring to the Holy Spirit, the scribes have penned Πνεύμα [e.g. 1Cor12:3].
It should be pointed out that the original New Testament text was written entirely in capital letters with no spaces or punctuation. So, whether the Greek word for “spirit” was a capital or lowercase Pi is a scribe-based rather than genuinely textually based issue. But the point is that my interpretation is in line with that of the early scribes with regard to whether Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit or the human spirit, a matter critical to a right understanding of Paul’s teaching on salvation and the believers’ participation within it.
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