Monday, 24th March, 2025
THE HOPE OF SALVATION FROM THE SLAVERY OF CORRUPTION
“For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus”
1 Thessalonians 5:9 (KJV)
Faith, love, and hope are the three basic structures of the Newness of life in Christ. As I have previously discussed, these three items, or basic structures, are armors to protect our hearts and thoughts.
As the coming of the Lord draws near, we are to remain watchful as soldiers at war and be sober even as we put on the three basic structures of the Newness of life as our armor and safeguard, amidst the toxic projectiles of the world.
As people of the day and of the light we are instructed to live this way to have a practical experience of the Lord’s intentions at His coming.
Paul the apostle, doesn’t want the believers to assume that, because they are in the light they can live according to their own terms. The people who are of darkness don’t know what to do to be ready for the enjoyment of the Lord’s coming.
The comfort of being in the light is to understand what Christ has accomplished for you and to have the instructions which will safeguard your heart and thoughts from the deception of this world, as you behold the Lord’s coming.
From the earlier verses of 1 Thessalonians 5, it is clearly stated that those who are in darkness shall experience sudden destruction. (Verse 3).
The coming of the Lord will definitely not be a time of comfort for those in darkness. It’s a time when the judgment of condemnation becomes a practical experience for them. It is not the dream of the Lord that all men will perish.
The Lord rather wants all men to be saved. However, those who remain in darkness are those who reject the Lord and expose themselves to the wrath of condemnation and destruction by their unbelief.
All those who believe in the Lord Jesus have received eternal salvation which cannot be lost. This salvation is the deliverance of the Lord from eternal condemnation or perdition (John 3:16). And we received this Salvation through the Lord’s death and resurrection.
The gospel preached by the apostles of our Lord Jesus was emphatic and loud on the reality that once we are saved by the Lord Jesus, we have been forever saved for eternity and shall never perish or be condemned.
Therefore, through Christ’s finished work in His death, and resurrection we have obtained a glorious salvation, which is eternally secured by His faithfulness.
Since we have obtained this Salvation in Christ, why are we appointed to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ? (as you read again from the opening verse above)
The coming of the Lord saves us (who are already saved in Him) from the coming destruction and the slavery of corruption.
What is the slavery of corruption?
When God completed His work in creation, everything was good. Nothing was corrupted.
“God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He validated it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.” Genesis 1:31 (Amplified Bible)
However, corruption crept into the world through the sin of unbelief. Even as of the days of Adam, every deposit of God into man began to decay (or experience oldness), even in the natural creation, including the human body. Through the sin of unbelief, man subjected all that God has entrusted to him to corruption.
This is how the principle or second law of thermodynamics came into being. The law of thermodynamics states that “when energy is being transformed from one state to another, some of it is turned into heat energy which cannot be converted back into useful form.”
See this:
“And he called him Lord, saying, “Lord, you formed the earth in the beginning and with your own hands you crafted the cosmos. They will both one day disappear, but you will remain forever! They will all fade like a worn-out garment, And they will be changed like clothes, and you will fold them up and put them away. But you are ‘I AM.’ You never change, years without end!” Hebrews 1:10-12 (TPT).
Apostle Paul explains this further in his epistle to the Romans:
“The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious sons and daughters! For against its will,l the universe itself has had to endure the empty futility resulting from the consequences of human sin. But now, with eager expectation, all creation longs for freedom from its slavery to decay and to experience with us the wonderful freedom coming to God’s children. To this day we are aware of the universal agony and groaning of creation, as if it were in the contractions of labor for childbirth. And it’s not just creation. We who have already experienced the firstfruits of the Spirit also inwardly groan as we passionately long to experience our full status as God’s sons and daughters—including our physical bodies being transformed. For this is the hope of our salvation.
But hope means that we must trust and wait for what is still unseen. For why would we need to hope for something we already have? So because our hope is set on what is yet to be seen, we patiently keep on waiting for its fulfillment.” Romans 8:19-25 (TPT)
Oh, glory to God.
We have this hope that at the coming of the Lord Jesus, the glory of our sonship shall fully manifest. In that, just as through the sin of unbelief, creation and the entire universe were subjected to vanity and corruption, creation shall be freed from the slavery of corruption at the coming of our Lord Jesus.
It is not only the stars, the moon, the plants, and all creation that are groaning together. Even the saved ones groan that we shall experience the glorious transfiguration in our natural bodies.
Though there is anxiety in creation, those who have received eternal salvation, have a living hope in our Lord Jesus, knowing that at His coming we shall be changed.
Beloved, as we are eternally saved through our faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus, we also look forward to obtaining a glorious salvation of our physical body completely from every corruption, at the coming of our Lord Jesus.
Hallelujah!
