In 17:31-36 the Lord indicates that the kingdom of God is related to Him and the rapture of His overcoming believers. This means that even the rapture of the believers is part of the kingdom of God. In fact, the rapture is also the Savior Himself. We can understand this if we realize that if we did not have Christ within us, we could never be raptured. The rapture in which we shall participate will be Christ Himself. When we have Christ in us to a sufficient degree, we shall be raptured.
We may compare ourselves to a balloon and the indwelling Christ to the air that fills the balloon. The more a balloon is filled with air, the more it will rise up. In a similar way, in order to be raptured, we need to be filled with Christ. The rapture, therefore, is a matter of being filled with Christ to the uttermost. By the time of the rapture, the “air,” the indwelling Christ, will rapture us, the “balloon” filled with this air, this pneuma.
The overcomers do not seek to preserve their soul life. In view of the warning concerning Lot’s wife, they do not love or care for material things. Verse 31 says, “In that day, he who shall be on the housetop and his goods in the house, let him not come down to take them away; and he who is in the field, likewise, let him not turn back to the things behind.” This verse reveals that lingering in the earthly and material things will cause us to miss the overcomers’ rapture described in verses 34 through 36.
In verse 32 the Lord says, “Remember Lot’s wife.” Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt because she took a lingering, backward look at Sodom. That look indicated that she loved and treasured the evil world which God was about to judge and utterly destroy. She was rescued from Sodom, but she did not reach the safe place that Lot reached (Gen. 19:15-30). She did not perish; neither was she fully saved. Like the salt which becomes tasteless (Luke 14:34-35), she was left in a place of suffering shame. This is a solemn warning to world-loving believers.
Lot’s wife was rescued from Sodom by angels, but her heart was still in that evil city. When the angels had brought forth Lot and his wife, they said, “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed” (Gen. 19:17). Lot and his wife were charged to go forward and not look back. Sodom was altogether under God’s condemnation and was about to be consumed, and they should forget it. However, unable to forget the city of Sodom, Lot’s wife had a lingering look backward at the city, and immediately she became a pillar of salt: “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (Gen. 19:26).
The warning concerning Lot’s wife is related to the warning concerning tasteless salt in Luke 14:34 and 35. When we put together 14:34 and 35 and 17:32, we see that a person who belongs to the Lord may become tasteless salt, even a pillar of tasteless salt. We may say that Lot’s wife had salt, but the salt had lost its flavor. What a shame!
We have seen that in 14:35 salt may be in one of three locations: the soil, the manure pile, or a place outside, neither in the soil nor in the manure pile. In the case of Lot’s wife, there are also three locations: the city of Sodom, the place where Lot was taken, and the place in between, a location of shame, where Lot’s wife remained as a pillar of salt.
Not many Christian leaders and teachers have seen this third location. Most teach that there are only two locations, a place for the saved and a place for the lost. But according to the New Testament revelation, there is definitely a third location. This is not the location of the saved nor the location of the lost; it is a location of suffering shame.
If we love the Lord and are warned by the case of Lot’s wife, we shall not care for material things or set our hearts on them. Instead of preserving our soul by loving material things, we shall be filled up with Christ as the heavenly air. Then we shall rise in rapture.