Salvation is a ticket to Heaven. We do not have to work it out. We do not have to endure to the end to be saved because we are saved by grace (forgiveness).

Salvation is not a ticket to Heaven. It is a Divine program that transforms a human being so he or she may fulfill a role in the Kingdom of God. It has to be worked out patiently, day by day, as the Holy Spirit brings down our sinful nature to death and forms Christ in us.

Some of the roles for which we are being prepared are as follows:

Being a member of the Bride of the Lamb (Revelation 21:9).

Being part of the Temple of God (Ephesians 2:22).

Being a member of the Body of the Christ (I Corinthians 12:12).

Being a part of the vehicle for the end-time revival (Isaiah 60:1,2).

Being a restorer of Paradise on earth (Romans 8:21).

Being a member of the royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9).

Being a witness of God (Isaiah 43:10).

Being a son of God (Revelation 21:7).

Being a brother of Christ Jesus (Romans 8:29).

Being an overcomer of the accuser (Revelation 12:11).

Being a governor of the nations (Revelation 2:26,27).

Being a judge of men and angels (I Corinthians 6:2,3).

Being a wall of defense around the Glory of God (Revelation 21:14).

Being a part of the revelation of Himself God in Christ in the saints (Revelation 3:12).

Until we have been built up in Christ, until we are in His moral image and are dwelling in untroubled rest in the Father, we are not able to fulfill these roles in the manner God desires.

We understand therefore that to view salvation as a ticket to Heaven is to miss entirely the process of salvation and the reason for the process. It requires all the grace of God and the patient cooperation of the believer in order to experience transformation into the moral image of Christ and entrance into the rest of God. Salvation must be worked out with fear and trembling not fear that God will forsake us while we are in the middle of trouble, but fear that we will be deceived or distracted and cease pressing forward toward the goal that has been set before us.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (John 15:16)

My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

And how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (II Timothy 3:15)

You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (I Peter 2:5)

To be continued.