WHO CAN BE SAVED?
With the difficulty of understanding salvation, the disciples asked Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” (Mat 19:25).
But you thought that salvation is
easy! That all you need to do is walk to the front of the church, confess your
sins, and ask for prayer. Indeed, that is the beginning of salvation.
We have been taught that
salvation is like a new birthday, and many Christians celebrate that day like
the holy day that it is. However, the ‘beginning’ was well before your
beginning, “God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth” (2 Thes 2:13). You came
later but you were chosen in the “beginning,” ‘arche’ in the Greek — in
ancient times at the origin of mankind.
Your beginning was the beginning
of Adam. He was the first of your kind. That refers to the origin of life, “God
said, ‘Let us make man in our Image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the Earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon
the Earth’” (Gen 1:26).
Right then was your beginning!
Your kind was chosen to prevail over all the other kinds; not that humans are
the strongest of the species, but the weaker kind who requires God to watch
over them. Right then, when Adam was created in the Image of God, Adam’s kind alone
were chosen to be in His Image. That ‘Image’ is ‘Selem’ in the
Hebrew, literally a ‘shadow’ or ‘phantom’
Jesus is the Image of God as
well. The person ‘Jesus’ is the material Image and the Holy Ghost his spiritual
Image, ‘Pneuma’ in the Greek — “like a rushing mighty wind” (Acts 2:2).
When Jesus was baptized, Luke saw
the Image of God converge on Jesus and remain there… “the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him” (Luke 3:22).
The human soul originally had the
invisible Substance of God within a vessel that had the form of a man. The
content of that shape was the Spirit of God, and its shape was as a full-grown
man. God made the shape and imbued within it His own Spirit, Then, he enclosed
His Image that he called ‘Adam’ in material — the ground (‘Adam’ in the
Hebrew). Hence, the invisible being was God Himself and the visible image just
the Earth, and it is now known that the body of a human has the same substances
in the same proportions as the earth (ground) itself.
God did that! He made for Himself
an Image and as the ‘Son of Man’ (Adam), Jesus is the both the spiritual
Image of God and the material image of Adam.
Adam was created ‘saved’ in that He
was already in Paradise! His state was one of glorification.
Moses was “glorified” (Lev 10:3) —
made heavy (ibid), not in the sense of weight, but significance
(dominion). Moses was given dominion over his people and God’s people became his
people. “When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin
of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him” (Exod 34:30).
The glow that Moses had was the Spirit
of God shining forth. Moses was given dominion over the tribe, and the Hebrews followed
a man who was glorified. What did Moses do to be glorified? Certainly not get
fat and gain weight; however, God got into his soul. Therefore, glorification
is indeed ‘weighty’ in that God imbues the soul of the Christian!
Of course, Moses was not Christ,
but within him was the ‘Shadow’ of Christ. God gave Moses the Law, and he
became the ‘Law.’ What Moses decreed was God Himself decreeing it! Paul wrote
that “The law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very Image of
the things” (Heb 10:1).
Of course, Jesus was the ‘Image’
of those things, and the Law was the ‘Shadow,’ or Holy Spirit of God, speaking
in written words. When He fulfilled the Law, the Law was no longer just Spirit
but concrete. It was written on stone originally indicating that it was the
foundation — the ‘Cornerstone,’ Jesus (Isa 26:16).
Now back to “Who can be saved?”
It is as if asking, “Who can be glorified?” Adam was originally glorified when
he was generated in the Image of God.
Moses was glorified when God
regenerated him from a common, murderous man, and gave him dominion over the
Hebrew kind. Jesus was glorified when He died and was raised from the dead as
He regained the ‘Shadow’ of God that He had given up at the crucifixion (John 7:39).
Who can be saved? Our kind beginning
with Adam, one sinful man with Moses, the Hebrew kind because of God in Moses (Deut
14:2), and Christ’s kind (1 Pet 2:9), the ‘whosoever believes in Him’ (John
3:16). Therefore, ‘whosoever’ (anyone can be saved). What must anyone
do? Adam did nothing. He was generated glorious and was made immortal. He should
never have perished!
Moses did nothing to be glorified
but listen to God. The Hebrews did nothing but those who followed Moses all the
way over 40 years were saved.
Jesus died and was made glorious.
He did nothing as He was nailed to the Cross. In all cases, it was the Spirit
of God in them that was doing all those good things!
Then, after the physical image of
Jesus rested in the tomb, His Holy Ghost did much work. Possibly first, the
Holy Ghost cast Satan and sin into Hell, then that same day, the Holy Ghost
saved Dismus, the repentant thief, from perishing. The Holy Ghost vacating the
body of Jesus persuaded Longinus, the centurion, that Jesus was God in the
flesh.
Jesus did very little in the
flesh because even when He walked among men, it was the Holy Spirit of God that
did all those good things. When Jesus lost virtue to heal, it was not His flesh
that became weak, but His Spirit. It was God in Spirit that healed.
When Jesus defeated Satan and
cast sin into Hell, he “healed the nations” (Rev 22:2). It was “finished,” so
He said (John 19:30).
It originated with Adam in the
beginning and was finished with the “Last Adam” — the “Quickening Spirit,” (1
Cor 15:45) that made mankind alive again — Jesus regenerated whosoever desired
to be glorified.
Who, therefore, can be saved? “Whosoever
believes in Him (Jesus) should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John
3:16). The key word therein is “believes” (Greek; pisteuo) — “any” who
are “committed to” Jesus (ibid).
Everybody was selected as ‘sons
of man’ but there is a threshing. Of all who were elected, those who are
committed to Jesus are selected.
Another question that the disciples
should have asked but did not is How committed? Is walking to the altar
enough commitment or should it be a lifelong commitment? You should know the
answer to that. Someone who comes to Jesus may be sincere, but is he committed?
Time will tell. They must “endure to the end to be saved” (Mat 10:22).
Endure what? Temptation:
They on the rock are
they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root,
which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. (Luke 8:13)
So, you should be saved, and you can
be saved, but it is any who are committed. How committed are you? Many are not
committed enough to hang with Jesus!
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