Residence in Heaven, and a change in our personality such that we can have fellowship with God and do His will, are not at all the same thing. One is a change from one place to another. The goal we are presenting is not a change from one place to another but a change in us, leading to a change in our relationship to God and Christ.

These are not the same thing.

Do you believe Adam and Eve have changed? They have been in the spirit realm for six thousand years. If they have not changed, are they ready to be permitted back into Paradise? On what basis?

Will standing in grace qualify Adam and Eve to reenter Paradise if they have not changed?

Will a state of grace qualify Adam and Eve to reenter Paradise if they have not changed?

Will they be permitted back into Paradise by trusting in the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord if they have not changed?

Did the Lord Jesus Christ come to earth so people can reenter Paradise on the basis of forgiveness with no change in their personality?

If so, what will prevent people from disobeying God again?

You might assume once we go to Heaven we cannot sin. Think again. Sin began in Heaven around the Throne of God. Sin is a spiritual matter. It does not cease just because we die.

Now, the things we have just written are to orient us to the solution of the problem. The problem is, the writer is claiming that the venerable state of grace, standing in grace, being saved by the merits of Jesus Christ, are so unscriptural in their implication as to be fatally destructive to our thinking.

Let us assume the goal of salvation is not residence in Heaven but deliverance from the person and behaviors of Satan, change into the moral image of Jesus Christ, and untroubled rest in the center of God's will. Let us assume these three changes in us are the goal of salvation, leading to a satisfying relationship to God and the performance of His will.

Acceptable so far? Sound like it might be scriptural?

Now look what this does to our argument.

"Standing in grace" means we will escape Hell and go to Heaven when we die whether or not we are transformed morally. But if salvation is our moral change, how then can we be saved if we are not being transformed?

To be in a "state of grace" means we will go to Heaven when we die whether or not we are delivered from the person and behaviors of Satan; whether or not we are changed into the moral image of Christ; whether or not we are living in the center of God's will. But if such deliverances and transformations are the very goal of salvation and are, in fact, what salvation is, how can we be saved without being saved?

To be saved "by the merits of Jesus Christ" means we will go to Heaven when we die whether or not we actually are saved from worldliness, lust, and self-will. Is this concept compatible with our revised (and I think totally scriptural) goal of salvation?

To be continued.