Being promoted or placed in a new position in business world brings a sense of great anticipation and challenge. Often there is much to learn in order to become effective and productive. In some instances, the new position carries a probationary period to determine one’s ability to fulfill the role into which he or she has been placed. While that has merit in the physical world, that does not in the spiritual realm.

First and foremost, the position of an individual upon expressing faith in Christ is permanent, not probationary or conditional. It is God the Holy Spriit who places that individual into Christ, an eternal position. That individual is identified with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and that is something new, never having occurred prior to the formation of the Church on the day of Pentecost. This identification with Christ was a direct answer to His prayer just before the Cross.

John, the Apostle, penned Jesus’ words spoken on the eve of His crucifixion … “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:22-26 NIV). 

Faith alone in Christ alone always is the only means of salvation. The gospel message presented to Adam required faith in the coming Savior. Today, faith must be expressed toward the Savior who came. The finished work of Christ on the Cross in paying for our sins was a divine work of grace, causing the Apostle Paul to write … “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph 2:8-9 NIV). 

There is a distinct difference between the people of Old Testament times who placed their faith in the coming Savior and those in the Church Age. Prior to the ascension of Christ, all who believed in the Savior went to paradise upon physical death. When one the thieves on the Cross placed his faith in Christ … “Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43 NIV). Upon physical death, the soul of that thief joined all those who had believed in the promised Savior beginning with Adam and Eve. 

However, in his New Testament epistles, Paul taught a new promise related to the death of Church Age believers. “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor 5:6-9 NIV).

Paradise for Old Testament believers had been transferred into heaven upon the ascension of Christ. Paul describes the pageantry of that event … “When he ascended on high, he led captives [OT believers] in his train” (Eph 4:8 NIV). Today, the soul of every Christian goes into heaven waiting for the day to receive its resurrection body. “I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:2a-3 NIV).