God’s salvation is a complete salvation. First of all, He began by saving our spirit; we were regenerated, we were born of God, and we received God’s life. When the Lord comes back at His second coming, we will be saved in our bodies, we will receive a body of resurrection, a body of glory. But today when we are living in the church life, there is the stage of the salvation of our souls. This not only the salvation of our spirits but also the salvation of our souls.
Second Corinthians 1:10 says, “Who has delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver us; in whom we have hoped that He will also yet deliver us.” Hallelujah! This verse is wonderful. This is the realm into which the Lord has brought us, the organic realm. This is the realm of salvation. We are being saved in a complete way, in our spirit, in our souls and in our bodies. Hallelujah! Who has delivered us out of so great a death refers to the salvation of our spirit. When we believed into the Lord, our spirit was saved and regenerated. This means we were born of God.
But the verse also says that He will deliver us, so we are going through a process. We are being delivered day by day out of so great a death. Maybe last night we may have had a great enjoyment of the Lord, but in the morning when we wake up we have the sensation that death is operating in us. Sin is in our flesh, so daily we need to be delivered from so great a death. The Lord needs to free us of so great a death. This refers to our soul. What brings us to depression, sadness, discouragement? This is not our spirit, it is our soul. We need our souls to be gained as well. Today God is operating to save our souls.
The last part of the verse refers to the Lord’s coming saying, “in whom we have hoped…” Hallelujah! We are people filled with hope. We hope for the Lord’s coming. We hope for His kingdom to come. We hope that the Lord will establish His kingdom on this earth and we hope that He will also yet deliver us.
When you are walking somewhere with someone, he may tell you, “Do not worry because I will take you all the way to the end.” This is what the Lord is saying in this verse. He will deliver us and we have hope that He will also yet deliver us. Remember this verse in your daily life. Do not be discouraged! We have hoped in the Lord and He said that He will continue to deliver us daily until He comes. Hallelujah!
This is the environment into which the Lord has brought us: the realm of salvation in which our whole being will be saved, the church life. Hallelujah! But the church life is composed with what? Is it composed with bricks and cement? What is the church life composed of? It is composed by living stones, regenerated stones, us. But when the Lord regenerated us, He also gave us gifts and the gifts were given for what? They were given for the building up of the Body of Christ. All of us have received a gift. And in the church life the Lord had also given us brothers to take care of us, to help us to be perfected. Hallelujah! Isn’t it good to know that there are people taking care of us, helping us to be perfected? Hallelujah!
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