Allan said:
WRONG!!!
They are not saved YET because salvation must be purchased by blood as says the scriptures. "Without the shedding of blood there can be NO remission (removal) of sin." WIthout the sealing and indwelling Holy Spirit one CAN NOT be saved for it is His Spirit that bears witness WITH our spirit that we are His!
The disciples still were not real believers in Jesus until AFTER the resurrection. They didn't know or understand FULLY what the Messiah was to do and how He was to do it. They still thought He was going to be their Kingdom ruler so when He died they thought is was over. Peter and 5 others went back to fishing while the others just stood around. We know they didn't believe because when Mary and the other women who went to the empty tomb and came back saying He is arisen for they saw Him; Mark 16:11-14 states :
We see the same thing in Luk 24:11-12, (37 - they though He was a ghost)
and John 21 shows Peter and other back in their old life fishing not realizing He was alive.
They were not YET 'saved' for Christ had not yet died for their sins AND they did not yet believe in the resurrection which is paramont in our salvation (Rom 10:9) Indeed Christ 'kept them' as He promised but that 'keeping' was from death physically until He procured them from death spiritually.
So you see they did not 'Abide in Christ' and their fruit proved it. But once they were saved and infilled the friut produced was that of a different quality. That no matter what happened they would always stand and abide in Him because that is where they actaully (sic) were. They could do no different.
While I think I know where you are coming from, I have to offer a couple or three things, here. As to the 'disciples' being "not YET saved", I have to differ slightly. Doubt does not necessarily equal one not being saved; neither does lack of 'complete' understanding. If that were the case, no one could ever
be saved or know if they
were saved, and in the words of Paul, would place
all of us as among "those most miserable", IMO. That is unless one makes the claim that they know all, one that this saint, at least, is not going to make.
Second, the remission of sin does not equal salvation, although salvation is bestowed by grace/faith on the basis of sin which would be taken out of the way (before the cross) and now has been (after the cross). The Lamb of God taketh away the sins of the world, although all the world is not saved. Hence there must be more involved than merely removing sin, as Scripture teaches and I just posted before, i.e.- grace/faith.
Thirdly, believing does not always have only to do with being saved.
Fourthly,
not one OT Saint was ever either 'sealed' or 'indwelt', as that is something particular to the NT saints after, at least Pentecost, but I submit that
each and every one of David, Abraham, Noah, Lot, Rahab, Abel, John the Baptizer, and the rest of the Saints before the cross were just as saved as you or I, and that by faith, for they too were entirely and completely "kept by the power of God".
And surely no one would say these were not saved, least of all, Scripture.
Ed