Before the rapture could happen

So many evangelical Christians expect the rapture to take place suddenly any time. But the reality is that there are some things that must happen before the rapture could take place.

Ep. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Ep. 5:26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
Ep. 5:27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Ep. 5:25-27 shows the lead up to the rapture. The lead up to the rapture began with Jesus Christ dying for our redemption on the cross. We begin the journey to the rapture when we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and believe it; we then submit ourselves for baptism into the death of Jesus Christ (Ro. 6:3) and receive the Holy Spirit through prayer (Lk. 11:13). At this point, we are born again. We have gone back to the condition of Adam in Ge. 2:7; except that we possess sinful bodies, whereas Adam did not possess any sinful body by the time of Ge. 2:7.

Having been born again (Ep. 5:25), we need to progress to holiness or perfection (Ep. 5:26). We must transform our sinful bodies into holy bodies. Ep. 5:26 shows us how to do it. It says that it is Jesus Christ who makes us holy by washing us with water through the word. The big question is, do we have any role at all to play in the perfecting process, other than just trusting in Jesus?

Why did God give His commandments to mankind? When I was much younger, I used to see some aspects of God’s commandments as restricting man’s enjoyment. But now I know better; I now know that God’s commandments are salvation—to save mankind from activities that cause havoc in the world.

Zec. 4:6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.

The main problem that people have with commandments of God is how difficult it is to keep them. A lot of people would actually love to be holy, but actually being holy has turned out to be an impossibility. The reality is that God never intended that a human being would keep His commandments by human might or power, but rather by His Spirit.

Ro. 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
Ro. 8:2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
Ro. 8:3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man,
Ro. 8:4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

The law of God could not save mankind from the havoc of sin because the body of man is already controlled by sin, and sin would not allow man to keep the law of God. God provided a solution to this problem by sending Jesus Christ to be a sin offering for the sins of mankind. Based on this sin offering, God condemned sin in sinful man. Sin no longer has right to control a human being. However, this principle works only in human beings who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Holy Spirit. Living according to the sinful nature means to depend on human might or power for life. Living according to the Spirit means to depend on the Holy Spirit for every aspect of life, especially pertaining to keeping God’s law.