One time the writer was hitchhiking home from high school. There were a number of students strung out along the road waiting for a ride.

A car pulled up a short distance ahead of where I was standing. One or two aggressive students who were nearer to the car rushed to get in. But the man pointed back to me. Evidently he knew my parents and wanted to give me a ride.

I was embarrassed and moved slowly toward the car. The man became impatient because other students were attempting to press in ahead of me, but he waited. I finally got in and we drove off.

That incident has stayed in my memory over the last fifty-five years, probably because of my embarrassment in front of the other students and because the driver was upset that I was not more aggressive. The incident is true of Divine election. We may be embarrassed in front of other people to keep ourselves separate as being special unto the Lord. But let us not make the "driver" impatient. He has selected us for His own reasons. Our part is to "accept the ride."

By keeping ourselves separate we do not mean we are to be filled with religious pride and haughtiness or to hold ourselves aloof from the members of our family who still are involved in the world. Rather we are to fulfill all family, social, and vocational responsibilities cheerfully as unto the Lord. But in our heart we are serving the Lord and Him alone. We are not a part of the world system.

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe thou hast sent me. (John 17:21)

The above verse is one of the most startling of the entire Scriptures. It reveals to us that the members of the elect, the royal priesthood, are to become one with the Lord Jesus in the Father until the Whole is one Expression of the Father.

As we said previously, the term salvation is used in two different ways in the New Testament. "Salvation" sometimes refers to the entire program of bringing the elect, the royal priesthood, all the way from the moral image of Satan and the spirit of Satan to the moral image of Christ and untroubled union with the Father through Christ. "Salvation" is used also to refer to preservation from the wrath of God.

We see the aged Apostle Paul pressing toward the fullness of the salvation offered to the royal priesthood.

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ. (Philippians 3:14)

Obviously Paul is speaking of more than salvation from wrath.

Salvation sometimes means primarily to be preserved from the wrath of God in the Day of Judgment.

And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (I Thessalonians 1:10)

The above verse was written to members of the royal priesthood, to "the church of the Thessalonians." This fact tells us that during the present age people are delivered from wrath, the primary meaning of "salvation," and then invited to run the race that leads to the fullness of salvation, that is, to possess Christ fully.

To be continued.