We Are Not Consumed - Yet
"God is a consuming fire...Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, because His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, the LORD is my portion, therefore I will wait for him...it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD!'" (Hebrews 12:29; Lamentations 3:22-26).
Mankind's only hope is in the great love and compassion of the Lord. We have His perfect Law but cannot keep it, bringing condemnation instead of blessing.
Mankind's only hope is in the great love and compassion of the Lord. We have His perfect Law but cannot keep it, bringing condemnation instead of blessing.
We do have the assurance in Scripture that although flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, God will still save us as a gift of His grace ...
"...I declare unto you...that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God...It is by grace through faith you are saved, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (1 Corinthians 15:50; Ephesians 2:8-10)
Just as all descendants of Adam die, all will be "made alive"...
"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Why? Because we are God's "offspring" and he loves us...
"From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, We are his offspring." (Acts 17:26-28)
According to Scripture God's plan is to make His children into a new creation like His Son Christ Jesus. Not with a body of mortal flesh and blood but with a transformed body of pure immortal spirit just like Jesus now has...
"...the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body...So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body...for the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality..." (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44; 53)
This transformation to a powerful "spiritual" immortal body is so certain that Paul speaks of it as a "new creation" that has already occurred...
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
God is a "consuming fire", therefore, our sinful body of flesh and blood will be "consumed" at our death, but in its place a spiritual body will and become "like his glorious body".
"Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2)
"...I declare unto you...that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God...It is by grace through faith you are saved, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (1 Corinthians 15:50; Ephesians 2:8-10)
Just as all descendants of Adam die, all will be "made alive"...
"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Why? Because we are God's "offspring" and he loves us...
"From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, We are his offspring." (Acts 17:26-28)
According to Scripture God's plan is to make His children into a new creation like His Son Christ Jesus. Not with a body of mortal flesh and blood but with a transformed body of pure immortal spirit just like Jesus now has...
"...the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body...So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body...for the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality..." (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44; 53)
This transformation to a powerful "spiritual" immortal body is so certain that Paul speaks of it as a "new creation" that has already occurred...
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
God is a "consuming fire", therefore, our sinful body of flesh and blood will be "consumed" at our death, but in its place a spiritual body will and become "like his glorious body".
"Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2)
The Truth of the salvation of all does not receive many Amens in this present age, but in an age to come all will shout "Hallelujah"!
"Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah! for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns." (Revelation 19:6)