The Christian salvation is not the forgiving and reforming of the first man. Salvation includes the forgiving of the first man. However, it is necessary, if the transition from the first man is to be conducted successfully, that the first man be held in check and finally crucified.

Salvation begins with the forgiving of the first man and requires that he repent of his former manner of living. These are preliminary steps of orientation to the Kingdom of God. However, the actual Kingdom is a new man: new in substance, in nature, in relationship to the Godhead, in motivation, in appearance, in authority, in abilities.

What does God intend to do with the first man? Will God save him? Preserve him? Is the Christian salvation the saving of us or the crucifying of us?

The Christian salvation begins with the hope of our first man that he will be brought to Heaven after he dies so he can be happy. But the parables of Jesus make it clear that the Kingdom is a seed planted in man, not a movement of the believers from the land of misery to the land of joy.

The truth is, the first man is destined to be broken, snared, and taken by the Lord as the Word of the Lord enters his personality and brings forth the second man.

But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. (Isaiah 28:13)

The Lord Jesus is the Word made flesh. We are the flesh being made the Word.

One may ask, Am I to be saved (preserved) or am I to be crucified? What will happen to me?

If you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, being baptized in water according to His command, repenting of your former life of malice, worldliness, and self-seeking, your conscious identity as a unique person will be saved and brought into great joy. But your composition as the first man, the living soul, is to be crucified and raised again as a new creation, a life-giving spirit.

Obviously such a death and rebirth is undesirable from the standpoint of the first man who will continue to fight desperately and convincingly for his life. Your change from the first man to the second man will be attended by troubles, trials, distresses, small and great in which—if you really are determined to reap a hundredfold—your first man, especially your soul, will cry out in the agony of death.

Does being saved mean I am forgiven and ought to try to live a better life so I can go to Heaven when I die?

Yes, in the beginning. Receiving the blood atonement by faith and turning away from the evil of the world are necessary if one is to make a success of the Christian salvation.

However, being saved means that you, meaning your personality—spirit, soul, and body, will be pressed into the death of the cross so a new creature can be formed in you.

To be continued.