Paper clips and a magnet; believers and the Rapture.

What do paper clips have to do with the Rapture?

Before we became born-again, we were all sinners by virtue of Adam's sin and not because we ourselves sinned as we see in Romans 5:19- "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

This old/sinful nature inherited from Adam made all mankind sinners, long before anyone had the chance to commit sin. When the old nature is activated by the law that many are trying to obey in order to be godly, it causes acts of sin to proliferate. See this in 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."

The law that many are trying to obey in order to be godly (be like God) arouses evil desires in those who are trying to get right with God by it and causes them to sin profusely. For example, Peter boasted in his ability to not deny Christ and he bore a false witness...three times. Sin has dominion over those who boast in their own ability to obey the law even a tiny bit, "For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Romans 6:14.

The old/sinful nature is what causes sinners to produce acts of sin. It is characterized by trying to obey the law in order to be godly (be like God using human effort,) just as Adam and Eve did by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to be godly (be like God.) See the forbidden fruit as a picture of the law in Romans 7:8-12 (MSG):

"Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me."

Without receiving God's gift of righteousness that we have through Christ's obedience, the sinful nature that produces sins is intact. Christ died to rid us of this sinful nature. In place of the old nature, we have God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ, so we get to live right and produce "a harvest of good deeds for God." See Colossians 2:

11 "When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. 12 For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with Him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead." 13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins."

Notice "dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away." Jesus did not come to tell bad people to do their best to become good. Even non-Christians do their best to be good and not sin. Christ came to raise the dead in sin to life. "Dead in sin" covers everyone descended from Adam who does not believe that he has been made right with God by Christ's obedience. Such have the sinful nature and are dead in sin. Whether one minute dead and still fresh with no appearance of maggots of sins, three days dead and already producing maggots of sins or dead without a leg, all are dead.

All whom God has raised together with Christ get to have life and life more abundant and also get to produce a harvest of good deeds for God. See 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."

Understand the essence of God raising Christ from the dead. See this in Romans 4:25-

"Who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised up because of our being declared righteous."

The TPT puts it this way: "Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that He had made us right with God!"

Christ's resurrection is the divine evidence that we have been made righteous forever and apart from works. Romans 3 says of God:

26 "...for He Himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law."

All who believe the above verses no longer have the old nature that Adam passed to all his descendants but have become a new creation in Christ: the righteousness of God in Christ, and not because we obeyed the law but because we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But God does not just leave us to continue to wallow in sins now that we have His gift of righteousness to us in Christ. Through the hearing of faith (not the law) He supplies us with His Spirit that transforms us to the image of His glory, from glory to glory. See Galatians 3:5 for how He supplies us with the Holy Spirit -

"Let me ask you again: What does the lavish supply of the Holy Spirit in your life, and the miracles of God’s tremendous power, have to do with you keeping religious laws? The Holy Spirit is poured out upon us through the revelation and power of faith, not by keeping the law!"

See the NLT: "I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ."

2 Corinthians 3:18 says: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Salvation, even salvation from sins, is not at all about behaviour modification. It's not about suppressing sins by human effort. The arm of flesh will fail and when it does, the suppressed sinful urges will erupt into a volcano of sinful deeds that lead to death. Salvation in Christ is all about hearts' transformation by the Holy Spirit working in us; with time and only by Grace, what is on the outside will align with the work of the Holy Spirit within. Beware of religious people who reject the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the sinner who believes to right living but teach that we should rely on the arm of flesh that will fail in order to overcome sins and live right!

All believers are imperfect people standing in Christ's perfection and are being transformed by His Spirit. Our paths grow brighter and brighter like the morning sun. None of us have it all together by ourselves. Christ is our righteousness. In the words of Paul in Philippians 3:9, 12-13:

9 "and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith.

12 "I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."

See the TPT: 12 "I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into His abundance so that I may reach the purpose that Jesus Christ has called me to fulfill and wants me to discover. 13 I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead."

None of us have arrived yet and we do not depend on our own strength to accomplish perfection. Whatever the level of our imperfection, we all have one perfect Person in common: the Lord Jesus Christ. For us, He is Jehovah Tsidkenu - The Lord our Righteousness.

This brings us to the different paper clips in the GIF. No matter how bent, rusty, twisted or straight each paper clip is, some of them have have one thing in common - a magnetic metal within. Some paper clips look straight and beautiful but have no magnetic metal within. Magnets cannot pull them out of the pile. Some look ugly, bent and rusty as if a person could get tetanus from touching them, but pass a magnet over them and they will jump out of the pile immediately.

For the believer in Christ, the magnetic metal within the paper clip is akin to God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ. We did not earn this gift by obeying the law or by being good and so cannot lose it when we sin or mess things up. Rather, Christ saves us from our sins as it is written of Him in Matthew 1:21- "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

If the Rapture should happen right now, every believer that has Christ as his/her righteousness will be transformed to our new body and caught up in the air with our Saviour Jesus Christ to be with Him forever. No matter the state of imperfection that the paper clip of their life is in- whether extremely rusty, red, yellow, bent, painted, encased in plastic, or just ok- all who possess the "magnetic metal" that is Christ's righteousness will be pulled up by the magnet that is the Rapture. In the meantime, while we look forward to His glorious appearing, our Saviour Jesus Christ is doing His work in all who have been drawn to Him by our Heavenly Father: John 6:43-46 (MSG)-

"Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over Me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do My work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End."

He makes us ready for the End.

Once the believing is right, right living will follow.