As Far As The East Is From The West

Q

Since nobody knows the day or hour, some persons who have accepted the Lord and repented of their sin, could be committing adultery, lying, gossiping, stealing, hating, cursing, having an abortion, murdering, having homosexual sex, and in the twinkling of an eye, they are given a glorified body and are meeting the Lord in the air and clouds. Is this right?

A

If you’re asking whether some born again believers will be sinning at the moment the rapture occurs, then the answer is yes. In fact, I would venture to say that most of us will be guilty of some kind of sinfulness at the moment we’re taken, because every time we entertain a sinful thought, we are sinning. Remember we’re not sinners because we sin, we sin because we’re sinners. It’s in our nature to do so.

But our participation in the rapture does not depend on our behavior at the time it takes place. It depends on our belief that Jesus died for our sins and rose again.

From the time we first started believing that, God chose to begin seeing us as we will be when we’re perfected in the resurrection/rapture, not as we still are. To Him, we’re already as righteous as He is (2 Cor. 5:21), perfect forever (Hebr. 10:12-14). All our sins, past present and future, have been washed away so thoroughly there’s no trace of them left (Ephes. 5:25-27).

Paul wrote, “Now if I do what I don’t want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is the sin living in me that does it” (Romans 7:20). This tells us God is able to separate the believer from the behavior. He sees the believer as being free of any imperfection, and the behavior as the remaining symptoms of a disease from which we’ve already been healed. It’s no longer part of us. Therefore it’s irrelevant to our participation in the rapture. When we arrive in the Lord’s presence we will be as perfect as He has chosen to see us since the day we were saved, separated from all traces of our Earthly life as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12).