Jerry Shugart
Well-known member
Slick isn't saying that eternal life is not realized now but instead he speaks of the final state not being realized yet. Of course the final state will not happen until the saints put on new, spiritual bodies just like the Lord's body.
No, a believer becomes sanctified when baptized into the Body of Christ:
"Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and our's" (1 Cor.1:2).
The word "sanctified" is translated from the Greek word hagiazo and it means "to separate from profane things and dedicate to God" (Thayer's Greek English Lexicon). The believer has been separated from the world by being placed "in Christ Jesus," the Body of Christ.
In his first epistle addressed to the Jewish believers the Apostle John tells them that they have been given eternal life, and that life "is in the Son":
"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (1 Jn.5:11).
These Christians are told that the eternal life which has been given to them is 'in" the Son. This can only be in regard to how the sinner is made "alive together with Christ":
"even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph.2:5-6).
It makes no sense at all to argue that being made "alive together with Christ" is something which does not happen when a person believes.
It makes no sense to even imagine that the believers who are said to be perfected forever have not yet been perfected forever. It makes no sense.
Frankly, I don't think that you will be able to convince anyone that your theory is correct.
