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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Greatest Lie Ever Told, #22
Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. (Mark 1:14,15)
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
We do not know how or when the goal of salvation changed from the biblical Kingdom of God to eternal residence in the spirit Paradise. Early Gnosticism is one possible source of the change in objective from establishing the Kingdom of God on the earth to eternal residence in the spirit Paradise. Or, the source may have been the developing doctrine of the Catholic Church.
First of all, let us note that the goal of redemption is to produce sons who are in the moral and bodily image of the Lord Jesus and who are in union in Jesus in the Father. These sons will serve as servants of Christ in the various roles and responsibilities belonging to the ages yet to come.
Second, the method for producing such sons is for human beings to receive Christ by faith, to enter by faith into His death and resurrection, and then to follow Him closely as through the Holy Spirit He administers to us the several components of the Divine grace. As we respond to the Divine grace a transformation occurs in our personality. We are changed from an adamic person to a life-giving spirit.
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [life-giving] spirit. (I Corinthians 15:45)
It is not a case of our living righteously and thus earning residence in the spirit realm. Rather, the Divine salvation working in us produces a new creation of righteousness and holiness.
As we have stated before, it is the moral transformation that is salvation, that is redemption.
To be saved is to be transformed morally.
What are we saved from? We are saved from the authority and power of Satan.
What are we saved to? We are saved to the image of God, union with God, and fellowship with God in all of His several programs and purposes. Salvation creates us in the image of God, makes us "male and female" (changes us from an independent entity into an integral part of Christ), produces fruitfulness in our personality, and establishes us as a ruler over the works of God's hands. The four results of the Divine redemption are the fulfillment of the original fiat concerning man (Genesis 1:26-28).
We are not saved by works of righteousness we have done. Rather, Divine grace produces salvation, that is, works of righteousness that we do. If righteous, holy, obedient character is not being created in an individual, then we can state he is not being redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
The arguments concerning whether we are saved by faith or works, or whether having once been saved it is possible to be lost, become irrelevant in the model we are presenting.
To be continued.