The Lord Jesus has purchased with His blood the entire material creation, including our mortal bodies. One day He will come to take to Himself that which He has purchased. He has given to us a portion of the Holy Spirit as a pledge, a guarantee, that He will return from Heaven and claim that which He has purchased.

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. (Romans 13:11)

Notice that the Apostles of the Lamb preached salvation as something coming in the future. They were referring to the resurrection of our physical bodies from the dead.

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28)

There is a past, present, and future aspect of salvation, of eternal life. The future aspect will take place when eternal life enters our body and we are a whole person once again, able to live on the earth.

The verse that precedes Hebrews 9:28 (above) speaks of "judgment."

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)

These two verses are in parallel. "Men once to die" is in parallel with "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many."

"After this the judgment" is in parallel with "shall he appear the second time without sin to salvation."

We shall be judged when the Lord comes. If we truly have died with Him on the cross we will be raised to eternal life in our body. We will receive the crown of life.

If we have not lived the crucified life but have chosen to continue in the flesh we will reap corruption and ruin. For Christ never again will appear as a sin-bearer. Grace and mercy operate now, in the world. But when Christ appears He will give to every man exactly as his work has been.

There are two principles of Scripture interpretation that are not always understood by the believers: (1) the principle of "obeying the vision"; and (2) the principle of "the assumption of the scriptural standard of discipleship." Confusion of interpretation and behavior results when these two principles are ignored.

The first principle is that of "obeying the vision." It is God's practice to declare a thing to be so when it has not happened as yet in the material world. We then are to live as though it is a fact. This is where faith enters in. Faith is not our declaring something to be true and then acting as though it is true; faith is learning what God has said and then acting as though that is true.

But there is a pitfall here. Our obedience to the vision must be worked out in the Presence of the Lord, in the knowledge of what He is doing in our life at any given time.

To be continued.