What do believers have once the Holy Spirit places them into the body of Christ?
Once the Holy Spirit places a believer into the body of Christ, that believer possesses eternal life, eternal salvation, and the hope of glory. Scripture presents these as the believer’s secure standing, since membership in Christ’s body, not merely a congregation, determines one’s eternal destiny.
Les teaches that the body of Christ began in Acts, as Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, preached the gospel of the grace of God and called out the body of Christ. He stresses that it is not so important what congregation someone belongs to as whether that person is a member of the body of Christ. A person may be Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, or whatever, but unless they are a member of the body of Christ, they are eternally lost. Once a person has entered into God’s salvation and the Holy Spirit’s work of placing them into the body of Christ, then they have what the Bible refers to as eternal life, eternal salvation, and the hope of glory. Les also connects the body of Christ to Paul’s revelation of the mystery, saying it is not found in the Old Testament or alluded to in Christ’s earthly ministry, and he relates this to the church not going into the tribulation.