I’m not much of a runner. In fact these days I get out of breath even walking briskly. And as a boy with a weak chest I would run out of puff early in the school cross country race and walk the rest of the way home.

So I can identify with those Christians who fear falling behind in the great Christian race the Apostle Paul calls us to run (1 Cor. 9:24, Heb. 12:1-3).  It’s no fun to see others sprint over the hill when you’re left behind and come in last, if indeed you finish at all. But there is a way in God that you as a Christian can complete the course “set before us” (Heb. 12:1) and come home with flying colours. And that’s what this study is about.

You see, as believers redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus and saved by his grace we really are running in a race with a precious prize at stake. That prize is attaining to the ex-anastasis, the “out resurrection” (Phil. 3:11). This resurrection is not just being raised from the dead but being resurrected out first from the great company of believers who will raised from the dead later. That is to say those qualifying for the ex-anastasis will have a prior resurrection that takes them straight to heaven.

Now, that there is more than one resurrection of believers is made clear in 1 Cor. 15:22-23:

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming (Greek: parousia).

Yet Paul in Phil. 3:11-15 points to yet another resurrection, an out-resurrection, saying he counts all things but loss, to suffer with Christ and be “made conformable to his death”, “if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection (ex-anastasis) from the dead”.

The apostle already knew he could be raised in the general resurrection of believers Jesus promised in John 6:44: No man come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day (i.e. his parousia or “second coming”) which will take place on his return to earth. But he now wanted to be part of the “firstfruits”, those saints who are to be resurrected with Christ and appear with Him in glory in heaven long before his eventual return to earth.

And, let’s be clear: there is no mention of anyone going to heaven in the Thessalonian “rapture” account. Rather the Thessalonians believers were told to wait for the Son who would be revealed from and descend from heaven to earth (1. Thess. 1:10, 4:16; 2 Thess. 1:7.

Fact is the prospect of going to heaven is cited for the first time in the “mystery” given to Paul and set out in Ephesians, Philippians Colossians etc. Here it is proclaimed that there is a prior resurrection for a select few who will appear with Christ in heavenly glory long before the so-called “rapture” or the so-called “Second Coming” of Christ when He descends from heaven to earth.

Does that mean that actually there are at least two resurrections for believers if not more? Yes, it does, which is why, as Paul says, there can be only one winner in a race and he advises believers to “so run that ye may obtain” (1 Cor. 9:24).

He also cautions that the rules of this competition “to determine who will be raised from the dead first” must be obeyed which, in Christian terms, means being willing to pay the price it takes to succeed. And that price is the total laying down of all that we have, including our life, in order to “win Christ and be found in Him” (Phil. 3:8, 9, 10). It means “the loss of all things”, sharing in the Lord’s sufferings and “being made conformable unto his death”.

No wonder our fleshly nature baulks at the cost. But those willing to persevere find God so arranges the events of their lives that the losses, difficulties and sufferings they experience put to death within them all that is not of Christ. The process also reveals the Christ within ever more fully for He Himself is “the fullness that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23).

As in any race, it’s vital for those who run to at all times keep their eyes on the goal and the finish line. And in the case of called out believers the finish line prize we run for is clearly set out in Phil. 3: 10, 11:

                That I may know Him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death, if by any means I might attain unto the ex-anastasis, the (out-resurrection) from the dead.

Thus Paul urges us to “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). This “high calling” is a “calling” of a select company of saints out from the general body of grace-saved believers. It is determined by the Lord’s choice (Eph. 1:4) not ours. It’s not a race for the faint-hearted but for the few who, like Paul, are willing to die to themselves to pursue it.

Sadly, the very mention of a separate and earlier “calling out” is strongly opposed by many in Christendom who wrongly assert that God makes no distinction among believers in this matter when scripture clearly teaches that He does.

You see, like it or not God is a chooser. And from the company of those saved by grace He chooses and calls out some to run the great race for the prize of being revealed in glory with Him in the life to come. Thus Eph. 1:4 proclaims:

According as He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

So, you and I are now counted as holy children of God not by anything we’ve done, but because before this “present evil world” (Gal. 1: 4) began, He marked us out to be saved and called to be such. As chosen ones (Eph. 1:4) our purpose and destiny now is to be found with Him in glory (Col. 3:1-4).

Importantly, the glory that is to be revealed, and we with it (Col. 3:1-4), will be in “heavenly places” (Eph. 2:6) where positionally we are already seated. Importantly, this is not the “heavens” presently occupied by the “principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, the spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). No. It is where the Lord Jesus Christ sits “far above all principality, power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Eph. 1:21).

It needs to be made clear that this special “high calling” (Phil. 3:14) precedes, and is separate from, the calling of others destined to be resurrected back on earth when the Lord establishes his kingdom here below.

Our “high calling” then is to be the first in the programme of successive resurrections that Paul outlines in 1 Cor. 15: 23-24. And, no, it does not take place at the so-called “rapture”, which is the Lord’s “second coming” to earth at the start of the Day of the Lord, his Parousia. We who are chosen will have been in heaven for many centuries before that occurs.

To sum up, we are called to suffer that we may “reign” with Christ in glory (2 Tim. 2:12). That reigning will begin at the Lord’s APPEARING (2 Tim. 4:1) when He takes over government first of the heavens and then of the world on earth. What a wonderful prospect that is.

John Dudley Aldworth

You’re welcome to contact me at the email address below.

Email: john.aldworth@hotmail.com

Website: https://www.dayofchristmnistries.com/rss/all.xml