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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Salvation Is Deliverance From Sin
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 your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 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 8:11-13)
The Scriptures speak clearly that salvation will come in the last days. Salvation is deliverance from sin. The kind of resurrection from the dead we will experience depends on the extent to which we have been delivered from sin and also on the degree to which Christ has been formed in us.
We are being judged now. Our response to the judgment directly affects the rewards we will receive when we are resurrected, in particular the character of the robe that will clothe our resurrected body.
Deliverance From Sin and the Resurrection From the Dead
Deliverance from sin is a major topic of the Scriptures. The resurrection from the dead also is a major topic of the Scriptures. It ordinarily is wise to restrict one's self to a single topic when writing a short paper. However, the two topics are so closely related we will attempt to present both of them and still preserve the unity of the discussion.
The resurrection from the dead. The resurrection from the dead needs to be at the forefront of Christian thinking.
There is great stress today on the "rapture," or catching up of the believers to meet the Lord in the air. However there can be no catching up of the saints until they first have been resurrected. Therefore we should be paying more attention to the resurrection than we do to the catching up.
The catching up is not emphasized in the Scriptures. It is not mentioned in the Old Testament. The resurrection is set forth in the Old Testament and emphasized in the New Testament. The entire fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians is devoted to the resurrection but does not mention the catching up.
The Apostle Paul was seeking to attain the out-resurrection from the dead.
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection [out-resurrection] of the dead. (Philippians 3:10,11)
In other passages Paul groaned for the redemption of his body or the clothing of his body with his house from Heaven. But Paul never once spoke of striving to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
Can you imagine Paul the Apostle groaning that he might attain the catching up?
A related thought is this: The concept that the Lord Jesus is coming to "catch His waiting bride away" to Heaven has no scriptural support whatever. The Lord is not coming to earth to bring His Bride to Heaven. The Lord is coming with His Bride (the great majority of the members of the Bride already are in Heaven) to establish justice on the earth.
To be continued.