They are living by Christ's Person and Presence just as Christ lives by God's Person and Presence. They are eating Him and drinking Him at all times.

They are attaining the first resurrection from the dead.

The resurrection to eternal life in the body is already dwelling in us.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)

"By his Spirit that dwelleth in you." The Spirit who is dwelling in us now will raise us when the Lord appears.

Now we are in a travail to overcome the world, sin, and our self-love, the corruption and death that are in us, so that when the Lord comes the resurrection life that already is dwelling in us may expand to include our body. This is the redemption promised for the last days.

Seeing that our body is dead because of sin, and that the Lord intends to make it eternally alive, we are not obligated to live in the natural appetites, desires, and lusts of the body.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (Romans 8:12)

If we continue to live in the life of the soul and physical body instead of seeking eternal life each day we will slay our own resurrection unto life.

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39,40)

There is a sense in which we are saved the moment we receive Christ.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)

There is another sense in which salvation is in the future, and there are several verses that speak of this fact. The salvation, the redemption that is reserved for the end of the Church Age, is the making alive of the mortal body. Let us look at some of these passages and comment on them.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. (Matthew 10:22)

The same thought of gaining Christ by enduring to the end is found in the third chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (Hebrews 3:6)

For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; (Hebrews 3:14)

To be continued.