Salvation and Righteousness

Today I want to pose a question that will prove to be a challenge to everyone who reads it, but the answer is something that truly needs to be known and understood. The question is this: When someone in Christ dies in holiness, do they have salvation? Now I know that this is something that a lot of folks are just going to shake their head at and say, "Is this guy nuts?" Reason being that most everyone in Christianity today has been taught that we receive salvation at the beginning of our faith in Jesus, when we 'get saved' by means of a confession of faith or whatever other means that may be claimed. I've dealt with that particular issue in many of these posts, so I'm not going to devote much to that definitive point regarding salvation. I will quote one short passage however that really puts that ideology to rest by itself: "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the END of your faith, even the salvation of your souls" (I Pet. 1:7-9). As Peter plainly stated, salvation is what we receive at "the end of our faith," IF our faith and spirit is "found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." It's hard to give one passage of scripture on such an integral topic without it leading to another, so let's tie this one on for good measure: "But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the HOPE of salvation" (I Thess. 5:8). It does make perfect sense that salvation would be something we are HOPING for at the present time, seeing it is something that we receive at "the END of our faith." And it is certain that salvation is THE hope of the Gospel, for we are also told that there is [only] "one hope" (Eph. 4:4). So the question becomes, Just exactly when is the 'end of our faith?' Whatever it is that stipulates WHAT salvation actually is, will also show us WHEN it is. So let's go back to the Bible for the answer. When the apostle Paul was taken before a council of Pharisees and Saducees, he said this: "Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of THE hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question" (Acts 23:6). He wasn't talking about two things here, but rather he was stating two aspects of the SAME thing.

THE hope of the Gospel IS the resurrection of the dead. That is what the apostle said, and if that isn't enough, he said it again later: "But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: And have HOPE toward God, which they themselves also allow, THAT there shall be a resurrection of the dead" (Acts 24:14,15). There it is again; the hope of the Gospel of Christ is to be raised from the dead at the second coming of Jesus Christ to this world, as we are told in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. So then salvation is the resurrection from the dead, which means until we are resurrected from the dead to meet Jesus in the air and are bodily glorified with him, we are still in a state of hope and of faith (Philip. 3:20,21). Even after we finish our course with pureness of heart and free from sin, we will still have the hope and the faith of being raised from the dead at the Lord's coming. Don't misunderstand what I am saying here. If we leave this world in true holiness it is IMPOSSIBLE that we will not be raised from the dead. As Peter said of Jesus on the day of Pentecost: "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it" (Acts 2:24). It wasn't possible for Jesus to stay dead because he did no sin, and the scripture plainly tells us that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). It will be equally as impossible for those who die in Christ without sin in their lives to stay dead. Let's make no mistake here that the faithful of God will be raised IN THEIR BODY THAT THEY DIED IN. One scripture seals that truth, though there are plenty of others to confirm it: "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" (Rom. 8:11). Paul made it clear that it is our corruptible, mortal bodies that will be raised from the dead and changed into an incorruptible, immortal body when Jesus returns from heaven: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory" (I Cor. 15:53,54). Death is all about the physical body, because our spirit NEVER DIES, but rather it will go to a glorious place known as 'Paradise' if we die in holiness (Lk. 23:43; Lk. 16:19-26).

Our spirit cannot be referred to as 'corruptible' or as 'mortal,' because the meaning of both of these words is 'to be subject to death.' It is our body that is mortal and corruptible, and it is our body that will be resurrected WITH our spirit when Jesus returns. This is how Paul could say in the next verse of the same chapter that I just quoted from, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Our spirit will never be in a grave. It will leave the body at death and go either to Paradise or to hell fire, depending on whether we die with or without sin in our lives. Those whose are in Paradise will reunite with their body at the Lord's coming. This is how the same apostle stated in yet the same chapter; "The LAST enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I Cor. 15:26). Death will be the last enemy that is destroyed because it will not be destroyed until Jesus comes from heaven and resurrects the dead bodies of those who are his, clothing them with immortality in a body like his (II Cor. 5:1-4; Philp. 3:21). What this means is that the faithful dead who are in Paradise, though they cannot sin or be tempted with any evil, still have the hope and faith of being raised from the dead in an immortal state physically. This also means that they do not yet have salvation, though it is impossible that they will not attain unto it. So in the end it is a technical issue that one does not have salvation even after dying in faithfulness to God without sin. Nonetheless I believe it to be a very important issue, especially because almost all of God's people have been taught to believe in an 'instant salvation' that takes place as soon as someone thinks or believes that they have been converted to Christ. The heresy of the 'getting saved' doctrine of this modern time is another topic in itself, and one that gets covered frequently on this forum. Let it suffice me for the moment to say that there is only one new birth or conversion experience, and that is to be "baptized into one body" BY MEANS OF "one Spirit" (I Cor. 12:13). That baptism is administered by Jesus himself unto all who truly believe in him for the remission of their sins, and there simply is no other means of sins being remitted from anyone (Jn. 7:37,38; I Cor. 6:11; Rom. 8:9; Tit. 3:5; etc.). The baptism of the Spirit with its accompanying sign of speaking with other tongues is in fact the only way that we can have the hope of salvation because it is the only way to have power to live free from sin (Acts 1:4,5,8; Acts 2:4; Col. 1:27; II Cor. 3:17; Gal. 3:27; II Cor. 5:17). That should cover the topic for now. God bless.