BLOG

Salvation and Inheritance

There is a difference between salvation and actually inheriting the Kingdom. This is apparent in the case of the Israelites under Moses. They were all justified by faith in the blood of the Lamb when they left Egypt at Passover. However, only two of them inherited the Kingdom: Caleb and Joshua.

Having been called out of Egypt, they were the first church—“the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38 KJV). The Greek word ecclesia means “called out to assemble as a congregation.”

The purpose of the wilderness was to test (or “prove”) the people to see if they would qualify for an inheritance in the Kingdom. Justification itself was the first step, but it was not a guarantee of an inheritance. A “second work of grace,” as some have called it, was required. The foremost pattern is seen in Israel’s example under Moses, and this is supported in the New Testament.

I do not say this to destabilize you or to feed your insecurities. I say this to focus attention on the principle of sanctification, which is the life of faith that follows justification. Many believers get their ticket to heaven, so to speak, and then live their own lives without sanctification. No one is saved (justified) by sanctification, but sanctification must still play an important role in the life of a believer.

How to be sanctified is another issue. Sanctification cannot be obtained by determining to change one’s behavior. Behavior is only an outward manifestation of one’s heart. Anyone, including unbelievers, can change his behavior through self-discipline. If you think self-discipline is the answer, become a Buddhist. Buddhists specialize in self-discipline and do this far more effectively than Christians.

Self-discipline is good, but it is not biblical sanctification. Self-discipline originates in the power of soul, which is what Paul calls the “old man” (KJV) or the “old self” (NASB). It is the soulish man, not the spiritual man. It has great power in suppressing the passions of fallen man, but biblical sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit that removes sin and changes one’s nature.

The law itself teaches this in the instructions regarding the Day of Atonement. The two goats (Leviticus 16:8) have different purposes. The first one was killed, and its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat in order to atone (kaphar) for sin (Leviticus 16:15, 16). Atonement is a covering. It covers sin but does not remove it. It requires a second goat to remove sin.

The first goat prophesied of Christ’s death on the cross, which covers our sin and imputes righteousness to us, God calling what is not as though it were (Romans 4:17). It takes a second goat—a second work of grace—to remove sin, as we see in Leviticus 16:21, 22. The sins of the people were imputed to the second goat (by the laying on of hands) and sent into the wilderness, thus removing their sin.

Of course, these goats in themselves were just types and shadows of Christ Himself. Animals can teach us true principles, but as Hebrews 10:11 says, they “can never take away sins.” That is why a New Covenant was necessary with a new Mediator.

Examples of No Sanctification

1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 says,

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

This is not a complete list, of course. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:50,

⁵⁰ Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Hence, his examples in 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 are just outward manifestations of “flesh and blood,” which stem from the “natural” (psuchikos, “soulish”) man of flesh. Paul derived his teaching about soulish men from Leviticus 17:11, “the life (nephesh, “soul”) of the flesh is in the blood.” Better yet, it says that “the fleshly soul is in the blood.”

The soul is fleshly, carnal. We got it from Adam, who was made a living soul (1 Corinthians 15:45). Our Adamic nature is the “old man” of flesh which must be crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6). The old man cannot be saved; he must be put to death. God is not in the business of saving souls. He saves the “new man,” which is spiritual, not soulish. The spiritual man is the “self” (conscious identity) that is raised from the dead as a new creation.

This is where sanctification differs from the righteousness that comes from self-discipline. Though self-discipline has its value, Sanctification is not about reforming the soul, nor is it about training the soul to be good. It is about the death of the soul so that the Holy Spirit may raise up a new creation that is a spiritual man or self. This spiritual man is not a reformed old man but a “new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17), that is, a new created being.

Who are You?

It boils down to a simple question: “Who are you?” Are you the old man of flesh? Do you still identify with the Adamic man that is soulish? Or are you a “new man” that has “the last Adam” as your Father? (1 Corinthians 15:45). God will accept your word either way in the divine court. Every court asks you to identify yourself, and you will be treated according to your answer.

If you claim Adam as your father, then you will be treated as a living soul that has lost immortality through Adam’s sin. How well have you done in sanctifying your flesh? The law requires perfection, and if your soul cannot present perfection, then it cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. Your self-discipline must exceed Buddhists and Hindus who develop the ability to walk on hot coals without being burned.

If you claim Jesus (“the last Adam”) as your Father, then you are indeed a new creature in Christ. You are not the man or woman that people see as you walk around in the flesh. You are other-worldly. You are in the world but not of it. Your conscious identity resides in your spirit, not in your soul. You are thus instructed to walk according to the spirit, “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).

The term “Spirit” in this case does not refer to the Holy Spirit but stands in contrast to your flesh (“old man”), Spirit is the “new man” that is spiritual and resides in your (human) spirit. Of course, it is understood that your spirit is saturated by the Holy Spirit, because you are filled with the Holy Spirit. There is a close identification between your spirit and the Holy Spirit, yet these are distinct.

The flesh man—that which you received from your natural parents—cannot help but sin, because sin is the manifestation of mortal, corruptible flesh. By contrast, the spiritual man cannot help but be perfect, because its Father is God Himself. It all depends on the quality of the seed that begets a person. The Adamic condition is passed down through mortal seed; the Christ condition (or way of life) is passed down through immortal seed from God Himself.

We are begotten by the seed of “the word of the Lord” which “endures forever” (1 Peter 1:23). Our old self was begotten through fleshly (sexual) means; our new self is begotten through the seed of the word that we hear and believe in our ears. Many people believe the word and receive justification, but they fail to understand the nature of sanctification. So they fall into a life of religion and self-sanctification instead of changing their conscious identity from the old soulish man to the new spiritual man.

Trying to be righteous can be quite discouraging, because it can only be partially successful. We cannot become fully righteous by the power of the flesh (self-discipline). If we pin our hopes of righteousness upon our ability to do righteous deeds, we will continually follow the Highway of Discouragement.

Paul noted that he was dealing with two entities (“men”). He saw by experience that his flesh man did many things that his spiritual man did not agree with. He concluded in Romans 7:17, “So now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.” How could he make such a statement? It was because he had changed his identity from the soul that sins to the spirit that does not sin.

So when Paul lists the characteristics of the old self in 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, he was speaking of the old man which cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. The new creature in Christ is the inheritor of the Kingdom. So let us walk according to the Spirit.