1 Thessalonians 5:9-God Appointed the Church Age Believer to Experience Salvation and By No Means His Wrath

1 Thessalonians 5:1 Now on the topic of times and seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for anything to be written to you. 5:2 For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night. 5:3 Now when they are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape. 5:4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would. 5:5 For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. 5:6 So then we must not sleep as the rest but must stay alert and sober. 5:7 For those who sleep, sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 5:8 But since we are of the day, we must stay sober by putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet our hope for salvation. 5:9 For God did not destine us for wrath but for gaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. (NET)

The first statement in verse 9 asserts that the one and only God by no means whatsoever appointed Paul, Silvanus, Timothy and each member of the Thessalonian Christian community for the purpose of experiencing His wrath.

It also presents the reason for the statements in 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

Therefore, Paul, Silvanus and Timothy and the Thessalonians must continue to be sober-minded by clothing themselves with a breastplate of faith, divine-love and a helmet which is a confident expectation of salvation because the Father by no means whatsoever appointed them to experience His wrath.

The reference to “wrath” speaks of the Son exercising His wrath or justified anger against the unregenerate inhabitants of planet earth during the seventieth week of Daniel and His Second Advent because of their rejection of Him as their Savior.

This is the second time in First Thessalonians that Paul has taught the Thessalonian Christian community that they will never experience God’s righteous indignation during the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Christ since he first makes this assertion in 1 Thessalonians 1:10.

The second statement in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 asserts that the one and only God appointed Paul, Silvanus, Timothy and each member of the Thessalonian Christian community for the purpose of experiencing the acquisition of salvation as a permanent possession through their Lord Jesus Christ.

This statement presents an emphatic contrast with the first and so therefore, the emphatic contrast is between the Christian experiencing God’s righteous indignation and the Christian experiencing the completion of their salvation.

This reference to the Christian’s deliverance from the wrath of God in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 is the second time the Christian’s deliverance from the wrath of God is mentioned in First Thessalonians since the first was in 1 Thessalonians 1:10.

“Salvation” is the noun sōtēria which speaks of the third and final stage of the Christian’s salvation when they receive their resurrection body which completes their salvation.

Like the church age believer’s sanctification, their deliverance from sin, Satan and his cosmic system is accomplished in three stages:

(1) Positional: At the moment the believer exercised faith alone in Christ alone, they were delivered “positionally” from spiritual death and eternal condemnation, the devil, his cosmic system and the sin nature through the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session of the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 19:9; John 4:22; Acts 4:12; 13:26, 47; 16:17; Romans 1:16; 10:1, 10; 11:11; 2 Corinthians 6:2; Ephesians 1:13; Philippians 1:28; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Hebrews 2:10; 5:9; 6:9; 1 Peter 1:9-10; 2 Peter 3:15; Jude 3; Revelation 7:10).

(2) Experiential: After justification, the believer can “experience” deliverance from the devil, his cosmic system and the sin nature by appropriating by faith the teaching of the Word of God that they have been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.

This constitutes the believer’s spiritual life after being delivered from spiritual death (2 Corinthians 1:6; 7:10; Romans 6:11-23; 8:1-17; Philippians 2:12; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:5-17; 2 Timothy 2:10; 3:15; Hebrews 2:3, 10; 1 Peter 2:2).

(3) Perfective: At the resurrection the believer will be delivered “in a perfective sense” and permanently from the devil, his cosmic system and the sin nature when they receive their resurrection body at the rapture of the church, which is imminent (Romans 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:8-9; Hebrews 1:14; 9:28; 1 Peter 1:5).

The prepositional phrase “through our Lord Jesus Christ” in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 expresses the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is the personal agency by whom God the Father will give each and every Christian a resurrection body as a permanent possession, which will complete their salvation.

Paul is teaching here in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 that the Lord Jesus Christ is the personal agency of the Father in a two-fold sense.

First, the Father will use His Son as His personal agency to deliver the church age believer from His wrath He will exercise against every unregenerate human being during the tribulation period of the seventieth week and Second Advent of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Thess. 1:10).

Secondly, the Father will use His Son as His personal agency to give the church age believer a resurrection body, which will complete their salvation (cf. Phil. 3:21).

So therefore, the apostle Paul is teaching the Thessalonians that God the Father by no means whatsoever appointed them to experience His righteous indignation which each inhabitant of the earth will experience during the seventieth week of Daniel and the Second Advent of Jesus Christ (i.e. the day of the Lord).

On the contrary, Paul is teaching them that God the Father has appointed each one of them to receive their resurrection bodies at the rapture, which will complete their salvation.

The implication is that the rapture will deliver them from the prophetic events of the day of the Lord and in particular the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Jesus Christ and thus the rapture will deliver them from the wrath of God.

Furthermore, in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Paul is providing two reasons as to why the Thessalonians must continue to be sober-minded or in other words, filled or influenced by the Holy Spirit.

Specifically, he is providing them two reasons as to why they should continue to clothe themselves with a breastplate which is their post-justification faith and divine-love as well as a helmet, which is their confident expectation of experiencing the completion of their salvation.

The first reason is negative in that they must continue to do these things because the Father by no means whatsoever appointed them to experience His righteous indignation during the seventieth week of Daniel and Second Advent of Christ.

The second is positive in that they must do these things described in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 because the Father appointed them to experience the acquisition of their resurrection body at the rapture or resurrection of the church, which will complete their so great salvation.

This event again will also deliver them from the prophetic events of the day of the Lord, i.e. the seventieth week and Second Advent of Jesus Christ when the Lord will exercise His wrath against each and every unregenerate inhabitant living on planet earth during this time.

Therefore, we can see that the Thessalonians were to live their lives in light of their future deliverance from God’s wrath and reception of their resurrection body which will complete their salvation.

In other words, the reality of the completion of their salvation in the imminent future must motivate their present actions.

Thus, Paul is teaching in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 that the guarantee of receiving a resurrection body at the rapture of the church which completes their salvation is to motivate them to live holy lives or in other words, it is to motivate them to experience their sanctification.

Paul’s teaching in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-9 makes clear that the church age believer will not experience the prophetic events of the eschatological day of the Lord, which includes the seventieth week of Daniel and subsequent Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

This is indicated by the fact that these verses address the Christian community’s relationship to the prophetic events of the day of the Lord.

Also, verse 9 asserts that God the Father emphatically did not appoint the Christian to experience the wrath of God during the day of the Lord.

This verse also asserts that to the contrary, God appointed the Christian to experience the completion of their salvation, which will take place at the rapture when they receive their resurrection body.

Thus, he makes clear in these verses that the church age believer will not experience the Lord Jesus Christ’s righteous indignation during the seventieth week and Second Advent.

He also makes clear that every unregenerate human being will experience His righteous indignation during the seventieth week and Second Advent.

The apostle Paul is also teaching that the rapture or resurrection of the church will precede the seventieth week of Daniel and will deliver the church age believer from the Lord’s righteous indignation which He will exercise against every unregenerate human being living on the earth during the seventieth week and Second Advent.

Thus, he is teaching a pre-tribulation rapture and this is indicated by the fact that the apostle asserts in verse 9 that God emphatically did not appoint the Christian to experience His wrath during the day of the Lord.

On the contrary, He appointed them to experience the completion of their salvation which again will take place at the rapture when they receive their resurrection body.

The implication of these two statements is that the completion of the Christian’s salvation delivers them from experiencing God’s wrath during the day of the Lord.

Thus, the rapture delivers the church age believer from God’s wrath which will be exercised against every unrepentant human being living on the earth during the seventieth week and Second Advent.