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. 5:22-31 addresses the relationship between husbands and wives in a Christian marriage. However, within this description of how husbands and wives should relate, the process a person must go through in order to make the rapture from the land of the living is sandwiched. The process has three stages, described in verses 25, 26 and 27. These three verses show that it is Jesus Christ who does all the work required in the three stages; they are silent on the role played by the members of the Church. This seems to agree with “saved by grace and not by works”. However, Ph. 2:12 says that followers of Jesus Christ should work out their salvation with fear and trembling.

How does working out salvation with fear and trembling relate to Ep. 5:25-27? I can illustrate it with an example. Yesterday, my youngest child was with my wife as she prepared some food that we would take to go and visit our son in boarding school. Suddenly, my youngest son cried out in pain and came over to me. He complained that pepper entered his eye. I immediately knew that I should apply water to that eye, so that the pepper could dissolve out of the eye. I got a plate and filled it with water and told my son to put his face in the water and open his eyes. He put his face in the water, but it was difficult for him to open the very eye that had the problem. Eventually, he managed to open his eyes. By the time he brought his face out of the water, the pain was gone. It could be said that I saved my son from that painful situation, but if he did not obey my command to put his face in the water and open his eyes, I couldn’t have saved him. His participation in the salvation process was critically important. He actually worked out his salvation, even though it was principally daddy’s work (grace) that saved him.

Christians have critical role to play in the actualization of Ep. 5:25-27. It is that role that separates those who will make the rapture from those who will not make it.

Christ died for the Church

1Co. 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

Ac. 2:37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Ac. 2:38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Ro. 6:3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?

Ro. 6:5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

Jesus Christ died for all mankind. The purpose of that death is so that we could unite with him in his death and thereby die to Adam and his marriage to sin and be grafted into the new man, Jesus Christ. It is only those who submit themselves for baptism into Jesus Christ, in water, that are actually redeemed by the blood of Jesus. They are qualified to receive the Holy Spirit.

Cleansing her by the washing with water through the word

The second stage in the process that leads to rapture from the land of the living is rising up to perfection (holiness). Jesus Christ cleanses members of his Church by washing them with water (Holy Spirit) through the word. Jesus Christ does the cleansing, but where does the Christian come in to work out her/his salvation with fear and trembling? It has to do with what the Christian does with words of God.

Is. 55:10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
Is. 55:11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

God has sent His words to mankind. Jesus Christ needs those words in order to cleanse members of his Church and thereby make them perfect. He can only do the cleansing if his people send God’s words back to God. According to Is. 55:11, in the process of sending God’s words back to God, those words must accomplish the purposes for which God sent them. That is a spiritual law.

How does one send God’s words back to God? The best form of prayer is prayer that is all about sending God’s words back to Him. People are fond of speaking their own words to God in the name of prayer. The result has been that more than 99 percent of people’s prayer have no effect. People need to come to the realization that man’s words carry no weight. That is why prayers based on speaking man’s words to God are hardly effective.

Jo. 1:8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Jn. 3:34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

As a person speaks God’s words, God responds by giving the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit fulfills God’s words in the life of the person. Following is example of how I send God’s words back to Him during prayer.

Praise be to you Holy Father God, for you work in me to will and to act according to your good purpose (). By your grace O God, I shall be holy as you our heavenly Father are holy. In the name of Jesus Christ.

By your grace, glorious Father, I shall always love you with all my heart and with all my strength, and I shall always love my neighbor as I love myself. In the name of Jesus Christ.


By your grace, Holy Father God, I shall cast out demons. I shall speak languages that I never learnt before. I shall lay my hand on the sick and the sick shall recover. Even though I drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt me at all. In the name of Jesus Christ.

Present her to himself as a radiant church

This is the rapture. Only Christians who successfully rise up to perfection can make the rapture from the land of the living. At the time of the rapture, they are holy and blameless.