We Don't Have It Made
But we don't have it "in the bag"! We can still lose that condition of reconciliation. God has attached a string, a provision, on that status: ". . . Provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel . . ."(Col. 1:23).
This is very important! Christians must realize that it is entirely possible to lose out on salvation even after they have been reconciled to God by the blood of Christ! Paul himself did not believe that he had it made, though he was reconciled. He wrote: "I count not myself to have apprehended . . ." (Phil. 3:13, KJV). He knew he could lose out on the Kingdom if he forsook his hope in the gospel.
"For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries" (Heb. 10:26-27). This refers to reverting to "sin" as a way of life. It speaks of returning to the world out of which one was called — of forsaking the Christian way of life. Peter likened it to a dog returning to its own vomit (II Peter 2:22).
(A word of qualification here. Many have worried unnecessarily about "the unpardonable sin." They have lived in fear and terror because they feel they may have committed it inadvertently. If you have been concerned about this, please be sure to write for our free booklets titled Just What Do You Mean . . . "The Unpardonable Sin"? and Just What Do You Mean . . . Conversion? They will put your mind at ease.)
The point is: it is possible to be "lost" after one has been reconciled to God through Christ! Every Christian should strive to make his "calling and election sure" (II Peter 1:10, KJV).
Intended From the Beginning
As we have clearly seen, God does have a purpose — a master plan for the universe. It is being worked out through the agency of Jesus Christ. And that purpose is one of long standing. It was established even before the creation of the first man. God knew just how He would reconcile man to Himself in Christ even before the world was created! Speaking of those who would ultimately be in the Kingdom, Jesus said: "Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"(Matt. 25:34).
God had intended, right from the very beginnings of the material universe, to provide a Kingdom for the saints to inherit. Preparations were made long beyond the memory of man.
But certain aspects of that great master plan had been hidden from man's understanding. God did not reveal the entirety of His plan to the early patriarchs of the Old Testament. Many of the prophets earnestly desired to look into the things which we can now understand and know (Matt. 13:17). But Jesus uttered "what has been hidden since the foundation of the world" (Matt. 13:35).
God's plan was "finished" — that is, established — at the very beginning: ". . . His works were finished from the foundation of the world" (Heb. 4:3). God knew, even before creation, that Christ would have to come to this earth and be revealed to man. Peter wrote: "He was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake" (I Peter 1:20).
God knew that He was going to select a people, an ekklesia (church or group), to exemplify His way upon the earth. And He knew that long before He created man through Christ: "Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph. 1:4).
God knew that Christ would have to die in order to pay the penalty for human sin. The Lamb was "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8, KJV).
Every human being, from Adam to the last human being ever born, will have his or her opportunity to become a part of God's great plan of salvation! God is not willing that any should perish, but that "all should reach repentance" (II Peter 3:9).
The Three Resurrections
Each of us will be included in one of a series of three possible resurrections. There is a resurrection to eternal life; there is one to judgment; and finally, one to eternal death.
Jesus said: "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:28,29).
Those who take part in the first resurrection will live and rule with Christ in the Kingdom, administering God's government on this earth for a thousand years (see Rev. 20:4, 6).
Others who have never had an opportunity to be called to the Kingdom will be resurrected back to physical life and given an opportunity to live God's way. This second resurrection will occur after the thousand-year rule of the saints: "The rest of the dead did not come to life again until the thousand years were ended" (verse 5).
But all who refuse to "bend the knee" to God, in the final analysis, will come up in a final resurrection to be judged and condemned to eternal death from which there will be no resurrection. Those who have been incorrigible and unwilling to submit to God's rule and government will be destroyed in this third resurrection. "Then Death and Hades [the grave] were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and if any one's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire" (verses 14-15). (More detailed information may be obtained by writing to us for the article reprint "Is This the Only Day of Salvation?")
The Exciting Climax
After the third resurrection, which follows the millennium, God the Father will descend to a refurbished earth which has been prepared for Him by Christ and the saints. John wrote of this in Revelation 21: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. . . . I saw, the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God . . . and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them . . . and God himself will be with them . . ." (verses 1-3).
Here we are reading about the culmination of the master plan of God! Here is the exciting climax to that great, divine purpose! God dwelling with men! The complete absence of evil in the earth and its environs.
In the new Jerusalem, "There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads" (Rev. 22:3-4).
At this point in future history, every human being who has ever lived on earth will have had his or her chance for salvation. The vast majority of mankind will have "made it." Some — the incorrigible wicked — will have ceased to exist. They will have been burned up completely in the lake of fire (see Malachi 4:1). No trace, no spirit, no soul, no flesh — nothing of them will remain. It will be as though they had not been.
Satan, too, will have been banished to "outer darkness." Never again, from that time on, will he or his demons be allowed to influence the children of God. They will be like "wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved forever" (Jude 13).
Evil will have been banished from the universe and peace will reign supreme. Death will be a thing of the past. Mankind will have realized his ultimate destiny within the family of God. Man will have been made immortal.
The apostle Paul summed up the sequence of events in the master plan of God in his letter to the Corinthians: "As in Adam all men die, so in Christ all will be brought to life; but each in his own proper place [order]: Christ the first-fruits, and afterwards, at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers up the kingdom to God the Father, after abolishing every kind of dominion, authority, and power. For he is destined to reign until God has put all enemies under his feet; and the last enemy to be abolished is death. Scripture says, 'He has put all things in subjection under his feet.' But in saying 'all things,' it clearly means to exclude God who subordinates them; and when all things are thus subject to him, then the Son himself will also be made subordinate to God who made all things subject to him, and thus God will be all in all"(I Cor. 15:23-28, The New English Bible).
The Master Plan Complete
What a marvelous statement: "God will be all in all"! The entire universe will be united to God — reconciled in Christ! Man's destiny will be complete. The master plan of salvation will have been worked out by Christ. The Spirit of God will permeate the universe.
How could anyone, realizing these dazzling, inspiring truths, wish to remain apart from that magnificent plan? Can you possibly remain uninvolved?
"Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure" (I John 3:2-3).
Will you take the first step to such self-purification? And if you have done so, will you continue in the faith? Will you do what is necessary to fulfill your intended role in God's great master plan of salvation?