THE PREVAILING TRADITIONAL THOUGHT:
- To receive everlasting life to live forever,
- To have our sins forgiven in order to serve God,
- To go to a "mansion in heaven" after death,
- IS VERSUS -
THE BIBLE'S PRESENTATION OF GOD'S SALVATION:
Which is a matter of...
- Receiving the divine, uncreated eternal life of God as a life in addition to the human life (John 3:16),
- Partaking daily of the divine nature throughout our life on earth (2 Peter 1:4),
- Being transformed and conformed to the image of the Firstborn Son, Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 8:29).
IN OTHER WORDS,
The Goal of
God's Salvation
Is Not
To Take Us Somewhere
But
To Make Us Into Someone!!
Most Christians, once they have the security of God's salvation, passively wait to go to heaven where they hope to live forever. However the Bible says,
"For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled we will be saved by His life" (Romans 5:10).
His death is for our reconciliation once for
all but
His life is for 6ur salvation day by day
We need to be saved much more:
| Out of | Into |
| Our anxiety | Christ Himself as our Peace |
| Our temper | Christ Himself as our Person |
| Our divisiveness | The Body of Christ |
| Our self likeness | God's likeness |
The goal of
God's salvation is to bring His
many sons to full conformity to the image of
His Firstborn Son.
"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the
image of
His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren"
Romans 8:29.
We grow into
this image not by
imitation, but by partaking!
As genuine children of God we should not try to imitate God as a monkey imitates a man. Rather, we have been born of God to have the very life of God (John 1:12 13; 1 John 5:12). By daily feeding on Christ's life in the Spirit and partaking of His nature through His Word we are undergoing an organic transformation in life and in nature until we are fully transformed into His glorious image (2 Cor. 3:18). Then when He is manifested, "we shall be like Him" (I John 3:2).
Not only the
problem of man's sins
will be resolved,
but the man himself will be inwardly
transformed
to match Christ in life and in nature.
Oh, how great is God's salvation! It solves man's problem judicially before God and inwardly and organically transforms man into the very image of Christ Himself'. Hence, it is a full and complete salvation.
May every sinner and enemy of God humble themselves in repentance that they might be judicially reconciled to God. And may every Christian faithfully pursue Christ in this age that he or she might be fully transformed and conformed to the glorious image of Christ. Then in that day, we can have great boldness and much rejoicing and "not be put to shame from Him at His coming" (I John 2:28) because we have not neglected,
"so great a
salvation"
(Hebrews 2:3),
If you would like to receive this salvation for the first time, or you long to grow further in your salvation, we would encourage you to mail in the attached postage paid card. As Christian Students, we gather weekly to enjoy the Lord ~ life supply in His Word and grow in our salvation.
All scripture references are from the New King James Version.