The Rapture: Who Will Be Caught Up With Christ At His Coming?

As a result of the preaching of a "neither hot nor cold" message, many of us Christians believe that our eligibility for being caught up with Christ when He returns for His saints (the Rapture) depends on our performance of the Ten Commandments, "how good we are" here on earth or even what we are doing at the time of His coming. Not so!
Just a quick intro before we see why not and what the bible says is the condition for being caught up with Christ at His coming.

The bible says in Ephesians 2:8- "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

This "saved" encompasses salvation from hell to heaven, salvation from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin; deliverance from oppression and molestation of the enemy; deliverance from all earthly ills and being caught up with Christ when He returns for His saints. Our salvation in Christ is a complete package of which the Rapture is the final gift. it is a gift. We don't work towards it. We look forward to it. It is certain for all who are believing Christ (all whose righteousness is found in Christ and not their ability to keep the Ten Commandments.)

Being caught up with Christ at His coming (Rapture) cannot be earned by keeping the Ten Commandments or doing good works to get right with God. It is God's gift to all who are believing Christ. It is by Grace.

If your performance of the Law to get right with God is what makes you eligible for the Rapture, then it is no longer grace - God's undeserved, unmerited favour. Only by grace through faith are we saved. If it is by one's own effort, it is works so that one who believes so is not eligible. Romans 11:6 says
"And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work."

Grace is God's undeserved, unmerited favour. We can't earn it. We can't work for it. We don't get it by hard work. We are saved by it through faith which is also a gift.

But many of us still try to earn God's favour with our filthy rags righteousnesses and law-keeping! This is the height of self-righteousness and hypocrisy: to think that we can do what God's word says no one can do - to believe that we can earn points of righteousness with God by doing what the Law commands when Romans 3:20 says: "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

Our own righteousnesses are like menstrual rags according to Isaiah 64:6. Whatever we do to make ourselves worthy of God's goodness or be eligible for our bodily redemption (Rapture) in Christ are like menstrual rags.

If being caught up with Christ at the Rapture depends just a tiny bit on our own performance of the Ten Commandments or has anything at all to do with our efforts at getting right with God, where do we place Galatians 5:4 "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

Believing that it is one's ability to keep the Ten Commandments, be good, or not have one's hand in the cookie jar by human effort when Christ returns for His saints is what makes a person Rapture-ready means that that one has been cut off from Christ! No Rapture for such a one.

So who is eligible for the Rapture? The criteria for being caught up with Christ is to be a believer in Christ and to be
"alive and remain" at His coming, according to God's word.
We see this in 1 Thessalonians 4 where the believers there were concerned about what would happen to those that had fallen asleep in Christ (the word "died' is never used to describe such beloved of God). This answer isn't Paul's opinion. Paul said it "by the word of the Lord" :

13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words."

We (believers) who will be caught up with Christ (after those that are asleep in Christ are first caught up) are "we who are alive and remain" at His coming, not we who are doing our best to keep the Ten Commandments; not we who are fasting; not we who are obeying to the Law; not we who make sure that we do good all the time so that we can make the cut. Wonderful as these things are, it is "we who are alive and remain" that will be caught up with Christ.
But does this mean that we should just go and be sinning anyhow? Certainly not! Many people who do not yet understand think that we Grace people are looking for an excuse to live a hedonistic lifestyle. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Trying to be good and doing anything at all in order to get right with God by your own effort has quite the opposite effect on yourself and on your standing with God. Galatians 5:4 tells us this is how to get cut off from Christ -
"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

Christ is of no effect in the lives of those who think that it is what they do or do not do that makes them right with God. These ones have rejected the gift of right standing with God that Christ died that they might have.

As for the effect on yourself, Romans 7:5 says: "When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."
The "old nature" here is simply the sin nature that every human inherited from Adam by default, as it is written in Romans 5:19 "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous."

Having the old nature means living outside the umbrella of God's gift of righteousness to us through Christ. Those who reject this gift of righteousness and depend on their good works to get right with God and be raptured have the old nature. These ones are not a new creation. They still have the Law as their standard of righteousness and thus, they all fall short and are under the curse. According to Romans 7:5, the same Law that such people try to obey in order to be righteous arouses evil desires in them and the result is more acts of sin that lead to death.

Romans 7:5- "When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."

As the righteousness of God in Christ, we are a New Creation. Not under Law but under Grace. And this is the result: we get to produce a harvest of good deeds for God, yet not us but Christ in us! Romans 7:4 "So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God."

Doing things by our own effort to get right with God is not Grace. It is works. In Christ, we are not saved (including being caught up with Christ at His coming) because we are obedient. We are obedient because we are saved.Titus 2:14 says: "who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."

Believers, don't let anyone deceive you into thinking that your right living and being zealous for good works as well as your salvation from your addictions, sins and bad habits can be accomplished by sheer determination and self-will. This is why Christ came. To "redeem us from every lawless deed." To redeem means to "regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment." This means that these sins hold such that are under it in captivity and a price has to be paid in order for such to be set free; a price that Christ paid for with His blood! He is our Redeemer. Without Him, we an do nothing.

This is God's undeserved, unmerited favour. His Grace. And our being caught up with our Lord Jesus Christ to be with Him forever fits right in there with every blessing that He has freely blessed us with in Christ.
Many think that this is "too cheap a gospel" but it cost our heavenly Father the most precious Treasure in heaven: our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Believers, with the Lord as your Righteousness and you having none of your own, understand that your being "raptured" has been paid for with Christ's blood, alongside every one His blessings (His righteousness, healing, peace, deliverance, all) that He ordered for you and you have received and are enjoying today. All are freely given with Christ (Romans 8:32.) Christ ordered our bodily redemption alongside all of His benefits that we enjoy today when He shed His blood for us and no one, nothing can mess His order up.

You believing one; you who are the righteousness of God in Christ; you who have no righteousness of your own from doing works of the law but have Christ as your righteousness; you whose boast is not in your own ability to fast or pray for 72 hours straight by your own effort but boast only in Christ as your Saviour and Redeemer; you will be caught up together with the saints in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air to be with Him forever. Look forward to it!

Believe Right and you will Live Right!



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