How do we know if we are offering our bodies enough as a living sacrifice to be in the first resurrection? Is there a measuring stick as to whether we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh enough? It sounds like you are saying Paul was concerned that he could lose his first- fruits salvation. Am I interpreting this correctly, can we lose our high calling salvation, or did those who lose it, not really ever have it in the first place? Hope this makes sense. Evangelical Christians teach repentance and accepting Christ into our life, then we are born again, and will be resurrected in the first resurrection. But it sounds to me like you are saying this is not true, at some point we have to move on to mature living, and offer our bodies as a living sacrifice enough to gain approval for the first resurrection, and how do we know we are there?. Am I right on this?

Thanks,

L____

Hi L____,

Thank you for your questions. Let’s take them one by one. Your first question is:

How do we know if we are offering our bodies enough as a living sacrifice to be in the first resurrection? Is there a measuring stick as to whether we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh enough?

There is definitely a ‘measuring stick’. When Moses was constructing God’s typical tabernacle, the Lord reminded him:

Exo 25:40 And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

That tabernacle typifies Christ. Christ is God’s dwelling place, God’s ‘tabernacle.’ He is also our “pattern,” our ‘measuring stick.’ Paul admonishes us through the “foolishness of preaching,”:

Php 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

If we have that mind we are in that ‘tabernacle.’ We have “offered our bodies as living sacrifices to God.” Our “dead bodies lie dead in the street of that great city wherein our Lord was crucified” :

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city [ orthodox Christianity], which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was [ is and will be] crucified.

It always has been, and today is no different; it always will be God’s own people who crucify His elect. So God’s elect will always be slain only “in Jerusalem.”

Luk 13:33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

You say:

Evangelical Christians teach repentance and accepting Christ into our life, then we are born again, and will be resurrected in the first resurrection. But it sounds to me like you are saying this is not true…

You sure got that right. This false doctrine of “All you need to do is to pray the sinner’s prayer, is a lie of massive proportions. Did Paul tell the Philippian jailer that he needed to accept the Lord in order to be saved? Of course he did. Do we really need to confess Christ to be saved? Of course we do. But is that all there is to it? Absolutely not! Here is Peter’s summation of just how easy it is to be saved:

1Pe 4:18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

And here are the words of Christ on this topic:

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.
Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men [ especially those in ‘that great city wherein our Lord was crucified] for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Salvation is a process. You die daily till the day this “vessel of clay” is dispensed with.

Certainly Paul was very “concerned” about his salvation. Paul and Peter and James all taught constant vigilance:

Tit 3:8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men. 1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

But neither Paul nor any of the apostles were ever anxious about their salvation or their part in that “blessed and holy first resurrection.” What all the apostles realized is the one thing the wording of your questions indicates that you may not realize. They realized down in the marrow of their bones the Truth of what Paul reveals to us in Ephesians:

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Here is verse 10 in the Concordant Version:

Eph 2:10 For His achievement are we, being created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God makes ready beforehand, that we should be walking in them.”

You worded your question thusly:

Is there a measuring stick as to whether we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh enough?

The emphasis is mine. Just so you will see that “we,’ are not our achievement. “We are His achievement.” We put nothing to death. Christ in us does it all, and there is no room whatever for the flesh to boast. Both the faith and the works “are His achievement.”

I hope I have answered your questions.

Mike