Today, you and I find ourselves in an age that is characterized by speed and hurried commotion. In our lifetime we have witnessed many great and spectacular inventions, many of which have caused people to accelerate their way of life. In order to aid humanity in keeping pace with the hustle and bustle of this modern era, man has succeeded in devising certain instant foods, that require a minimum of effort and time to prepare. One can now go to the grocery store and buy such commodities as instant potatoes, instant milk or instant pudding. Merely by adding a liquid ingredient to the dry mixture, one can produce a food product almost as tasty and succulent as the old method of preparation. In order to keep up with this accelerated generation, theologians have devised a method whereby one may obtain salvation as instantaneously and as quickly as a housewife can whip up a batch of instant mashed potatoes. It is asserted that all one has to do is to believe in Christ and he is once and for all saved. He is alleged to have instantaneously experienced salvation, and is from that time forward referred to as “saved.” Once he has reached this position, there is nothing in this world that can altar or change his future so far as his redemption is concerned. Once saved, it is charged, always saved, regardless of the conduct of one who believes.
We would like to examine this position from a scriptural standpoint, for it is to the Word of God that theologians appeal to substantiate this claim. The Bible speaks a great deal about being saved, and clearly indicates that it involves much more than just believing that Jesus is the Son of God, and accepting him as their Saviour. This theory about instant salvation is one of the most misleading and dangerous deceptions ever practiced on the minds of men and women. It lulls them into a false sense of security and mental lethargy, and blinds them to their full and personal responsibility to God.
Just what does saved mean? The word is used profusely among religious groups, and by some individuals without the slightest notion of what it actually means The word occurs many times in the Bible as the following texts illustrate in 1 Corinthians 1 21, Paul declares, For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” The Lord Jesus Christ in Mark 16 16 solemnly warns, “He that believeth (the gospel) and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned ” On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and made a lengthy quotation from the prophet Joel, saying in Acts 2 21, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”
Just what does the word “saved ‘, as used in these passages mean ? The original Greek word from which “saved ‘ is translated has the meaning of being in a state of deliverance, rescued or preserved When one is saved he is obviously in possession of salvation You cannot be saved without experiencing salvation But, from what are we saved? From the passages we have just reviewed, it is quite clear that the believer is delivered or rescued from something, however, a fate that is not there divulged.
An angel was sent to Joseph, which said to him, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins ‘ (Matthew 1 19-21) This was the ultimate purpose of Christ’s mission, to effect a deliverance of men and women from their sins Later on Christ said to his disciples in Luke 9 56, “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men s lives but to save them ‘ This purpose, as expressed by Jesus will enable us to understand what it means to be saved from our sins For, to be saved from our sins clearly means to be saved from the Consequences of our sins The consequences of our sins is death, pure and simple, as Paul emphatically declared in Romans 6 23, “For the Wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life “
Since all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, we are all morally subject to death Each of us has earned death, as it were, and consequently are in need of the forgiveness of our sins that has been made possible through the sacrifice of Christ The sinfulness of man and his inevitable destiny in death are the circumstances that necessitated the death and resurrection of Jesus Hence we are reminded in John 3 16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not-perish, but have everlasting life For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” Notice particularly friends, that sinners are saved from Perishing. from dying, and not from eternal punishing in a fictitious hell In all Instances where a contrast is made between redemption in Christ, and our own natural destinies, it is clear that deliverance is from death and the grave and not from eternal life in torment This doctrine of the everlasting punishing of unrepentant sinners in the flames of hell is another case where a great deception has been cast upon the minds of men Notice how the emphasis is placed on deliverance from death in the following passages, In John 10 10, Jesus tells us, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” Later in this same chapter the Lord said, verses 27-29, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand ” Paul clearly indicates the contrast in Galatians 6 7,8 where he warns us, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting‘ In these testimonies we have life eternal contrasted with perishing, we have life everlasting contrasted with corruption.
From the Scriptures we have examined thus far, the following important facts emerge: 1. To be saved involves experiencing salvation; 2. Salvation in Christ concerns living forever; 3. It also involves deliverance from the consequences from our sins, which is death.
With these facts before us concerning salvation, how can we lay claim to presently being saved ? Can it be said that those who have believed and accepted Christ are now saved; are now experiencing salvation? Of course it can’t, and the outstanding reason that it can’t is because salvation has to do with the redemption of this body. This truth has been amply illustrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus. When Christ was put to death at the cross and later laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, all the bodily functions natural to his being ceased. Had he not been raised from the dead before three days his body would have passed into a process of deterioration. However, in the purpose of His Father it was planned that Christ’s body should not be subjected to decay. If those of you who have your Bibles handy will turn with us to the 13th chapter of Acts we shall find the apostle Peter making a few comments on the resurrection of Christ. Let us read from the 34th verse; “And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, He said on this wise, ‘I will give you the sure mercies of David.’ Wherefore he saith also in another Psalm, ‘Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.’ For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised again, saw no corruption.” Christ was, thus “put to death in the flesh” and “quickened BY the Spirit.” You will particularly notice, friends, that Peter states that Christ was quickened BY the Spirit, not in the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit was instrumental in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
It was in this same body that Jesus later appeared to his disciples and other selected witnesses; the same body as far as the outward physical appearance of that body in concerned. Actually, it was a glorified and immortalized body, one that was not subject to decay or death in which the Lord made his manifestations during the forty days between his resurrection and his bodily ascension into heaven. Having been raised from the dead, and having had his body changed to Spirit substance, death could no longer claim him. Being the first to arise from the dead to a state of immortality, he is styled by Paul as the second or last Adam. (1 Cor. 15:45, 47) Jesus, thus, becomes the beginning of a new creation, and a Divine pattern for the salvation of those who believe him. In 1 Cor. 15:49, Paul states, “And as we have borne the image of the earthly (Adamic) we shall also bear the image of the heavenly (Christ) “. The exact order in which this change from the mortal to the immortal is to take place is clearly set forth in verses 20-23 of this same chapter; “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits, afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming.” Since salvation involves the redemption of this mortal body, and since this change is not to be effected until the return of Christ to this earth, it is apparent that one is not saved immediately at his belief of the gospel. Salvation is a process, that begins with an understanding of the gospel of Christ and is consumated only when the redeemed ones shall bear the image of the heavenly at the resurrection of the dead.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One