by Jacob Ninan
A most important step we must take in understanding salvation is to recognise that we do have a part to do in order to experience it. This is very difficult for some who have been taught that salvation is entirely a work of God through His grace. They have heard that any mention of what they have to do would put them back 'under the Law'! This difficulty comes from a wrong understanding about the sovereignty and the grace of God. These people think of the sovereignty of God not just as His ability to do whatever He wants, but they assume that everything that happens is from God. This is obviously wrong because all the evil that goes on is not from God but from people and Satan, and God is altogether good and without evil. Secondly, trying to understand the grace of God as an unmerited favour which He shows towards people, about which we can boast nothing, people again assume that therefore salvation is entirely a work of God in which our role is only as recipients of His grace. It would not be appropriate for me in our present context to go into an elaborate discussion to show that these assumptions are wrong, which I have addressed in another message. Let me just mention here that God has created us in His image, a part of which is His sovereignty, which we have received as a limited ability to choose what we want to do. This is why all through the Bible, God exhorts us to choose Him and to do His will, and to give up evil ways. Grace is an unmerited favour God shows us when He does not give us what we deserve, but offers us His blessings which we do not deserve. But it is more than that. It is also His help that He gives us in our times of need, to enable us to do what we need to do, for example, to renounce the wrong and to choose the right when we are tempted (Heb.4:15,16).
The next step in our understanding of salvation is also very important from a practical point of view. This is to recognise that our salvation has three phases through which we have to go in order to experience its fullness. Some people commonly ask the question, "Are you saved?" as if salvation is a once-for-all experience that we can point to in our past which has settled everything for us. There is surely a beginning, or a starting point, to which we should be able to point. What the question that many ask means is if someone has started on this salvation. But there is also a growth in salvation that we should be concerned about. Three theological words are used, namely, justification, sanctification and glorification, referring to the three phases in our experience of salvation. What is important to understand, in the context of this message, is that our part, or what we ought to do from our side, is different in each of these three phases. Depending on where we are in terms of salvation, our responses towards what God is doing at that time will be different. If we are vague about this, we may imagine, for example, that once we have experienced justification we have done all that we need to, without understanding what we ought to be doing for sanctification or glorification. My desire here is to describe these three phases and point out what we are to do in each phase.
Our fallen condition
When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, there were several aspects where they went wrong. 1. They did not believe God who had warned them against eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God was the One who had created them, provided everything for them, and whom they knew personally during their stay in the garden. 2. They believed Satan who said that they would not die even if they sinned. They did not see through this new person whom they had just met who was telling them that God could not be trusted. 3. They desired their own knowledge of good and evil, thinking that it would make them like God. They did not realise who God was and who they were, and that they could not become gods just by getting some knowledge. 4. They did not realise that they were indirectly seeking to be independent from God, which was what Satan wanted to lead them to. They forgot that their entire existence was from God, and that independence from God would separate them from all that God had given them. 5. The fruit appeared to be attractive, and they imagined that eating a 'good' fruit could not be bad and would not cause them any harm. They forgot that God knew what was good and bad for them and that He was actually trying to protect them from harm.What all damage did this sin cost them? 1. They lost the open fellowship they had with God earlier. 2. They lost the protection they had from God and they came under the oppression of Satan. 3. Their spirit, mind and body became corrupted by sin. 4. They became distant from one another. 5. The whole earth came into corruption, bringing sickness, suffering and death. 6. They lost the free provision they had from God and now they had to struggle on their own to meet their needs. 7. Adam and Eve's human nature which became sinful was passed on to their descendants.
The remedy for sin – salvation
One most important fact we must notice about the first sin was that it was a wrong choice by Adam and Eve. God had placed the two special trees in the Garden, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, as a test to see what they would choose. If they had chosen life, the story would have been entirely different. We must also understand from here, that God is now giving us an opportunity to reverse that choice and get back to Him. Make a choice, we must. God is not forcing salvation on us using His so-called irresistible grace! He has not predetermined some people to make the right choice and the others to make the wrong choice. This would have required that we should have been created to be like robots, and not in the image of God. But we have been made in the image of God, as intelligent beings who have the ability to choose what to do. We do make choices every day of our life. We make choices as we are tempted all through life between sin and pleasure, or to say no to temptation and submit to God. We must continually keep making right choices every moment of our life in order to participate more and more in salvation. It is sad to see how Satan has deceived many Christians into believing that it is all of God's grace and that God will save people entirely from His side, those whom He has predestined to be in that group.When we are born into this world, we already have a nature that is inclined towards sin. This is what we have inherited from our ancestors. Adam and Eve, because they sinned and corrupted their nature. Many people try to say that people are inherently good and that if someone becomes evil, their circumstances are the cause. But God tells us in His word that we are born in sin (Psa.51:5). We can really see this right before our eyes. Even children who are born to godly parents begin to tell lies, steal, cheat, fight, etc., when they are very small. This shows their nature rather than what they have learnt from the environment. It is our sinful nature that prompts us to sin. Sometimes Satan puts ideas in our mind suggesting that we should do something sinful in order to get some gain. That is what we learn from the way he tempted Jesus. Sometimes we avoid doing sinful things for fear of getting caught. But the truth is that we all have sinned personally in our lives, in different forms and at different times. Whatever people think about us, our life is open before God and He knows exactly what choices we have made and what we have done.
Let us now look at the three phases of salvation and see what God offers and what we must do to receive them. God wants to save us from our sins (Matt.1:21). To do that fully, He must forgive all our past sins so that the separation between us and God will be removed. He must then give us help so that we can overcome in temptations and choose to do the will of God. Finally our sinful nature itself must be taken out.
Justification
Since God is holy and without sin, our sins separate us from Him. Even though He wants to have fellowship with us, He cannot, because of this chasm between us. He also knows that no matter what we do from our side trying to obtain favour from Him, He cannot accept us as long as the record of our sins stays between us. In addition, as the righteous Lawgiver and Judge, He cannot simply overlook our sins and accept us. Sometimes we think our sin is not so serious as to deserve such an eternal punishment. People are used to overlooking the sins of those they love and pretending as if everything is fine. But every sin that we have done has made an eternal separation from God. That was the death He had warned Adam and Eve about. God cannot just ignore our sins, but in fact, He has to punish us because we have disobeyed His laws. But He loves us, does not want us to perish, and so He offers us salvation.The first part of salvation is for God to accept us. Since this is something we do not deserve at all, it is only through grace that God can accept us. Here, God offers us grace as a favour we do not merit, something we cannot ever earn. This is why this grace is an undeserved favour. So, when God accepts us, none of us can boast about it (Eph.2:8,9). Since God cannot accept sin, He has to first put away our sins before He can accept us. He did that when His Son took our place on the cross and died in our place, thereby bearing the punishment for us. In other words, our sins were placed on Jesus when He hung on the cross, and it was those sins that killed Him. That is how God clears our account of sin by transferring our debt to Jesus. In addition, He transfers the sinless righteousness of Jesus to our account. Now His righteousness is 'imputed' or credited to us (Rom.4:5). Now we can understand why we don't deserve this at all. This part of salvation is called justification, because it is God justifying us as being without sin accounted against us.
God makes this offer of justification to all people, because Jesus has died, once for all, for the sins of the whole world (1Jn.2:2). But very few accept this offer because of various reasons. Some imagine they do not need any salvation because they are not sinners but good people. Some think they need to earn this acceptance from God somehow. Sometimes they imagine they are acceptable to God, but at other times they feel guilty! Some others find it difficult to accept intellectually that the death of one man 2000 years ago can have anything to do with their salvation. According to Jesus, very few people will actually find the way that leads to life (Matt.7:13,14).
In order for us to receive this free gift of salvation, we must first realise we need it. When we hear the Gospel preached to us and understand where we stand in the presence of the holy God, we get convicted of our sins. The guilt of all the sins we have done in our life becomes very real to us. We realise that we are hopeless except for this offer from Jesus. We are only too relieved to give ourselves into the hands of Jesus and ask for forgiveness. We also wish with all our heart not to sin against God again. What I have just described here is called repentance and faith in the Saviour. God offers forgiveness freely, and we accept it gratefully through faith in the Saviour. Those who are unwilling to repent or to place their trust in Jesus will not find salvation. We cannot earn forgiveness for our sins in any way. We can see that no one else but Jesus offers us salvation this way by grace (Jn.14:6;Acts.4:12). But God, the just Lawgiver and Judge, has solved our problem by offering us the only way we can be saved, through grace.
Sanctification
Some Christians who have not looked seriously into the subject of salvation think that now that God has accepted them and Jesus is making a place for them in heaven, everything is all right for them. When they sin, they go to Jesus for forgiveness, and again they think that things are fine. Some of them take it upon themselves to tell others about this good news that their sins too can be forgiven.What they have not thought of is that just forgiving our sins is not enough for God, because we go on sinning! We have been accepted as His children, and we have a little more fellowship with Him, but we are not becoming like Him and our fellowship is not becoming deeper and more intimate. Justification is not able to accomplish in us what He wants. But we must know that there are two more phases to salvation in which we must participate. They are sanctification and glorification.
Sanctification means to be set apart – separated for God. We see a picture of this in the Old Testament as some places, some vessels and some people being set apart for God. There it is called as being made holy unto the Lord. If any animal, things or people were to be offered to God for sacrifice or service, they must be without blemish or fault. These are then no longer available for common use. For us, to be set apart as holy unto God means many things. First of all, it means that we must stop sinning because God cannot tolerate sin. We have been forgiven our sins, but now we are to be set free from sin's power so that we do not sin (1Jn.2:1). We note here two things. God's intention is that we must stop sinning. The more we stop sinning and do the will of God in our life, the more our character will be transformed into His nature. So, what must we do in order to stop sinning and become more and more like Jesus in our character?
There are some common mistakes Christians make here. Some claim they are already sanctified by misquoting some verses and saying that when we come to Jesus we are automatically sanctified. But such verses are only referring to our being set apart from darkness to light, etc., about what happens at justification. Some others think that it is entirely God's work to sanctify us. Yes, it is the Holy Spirit who is working in us, but then our response must be to deny ourselves and follow Him. Some point to some experience in their life, such as the baptism in the Holy Spirit, to claim that they have been entirely sanctified. Some even claim that they now do not have any more sin in their life. But it is obvious to everyone around them that they are not without sin. Some others think that the more we meditate on the word of God and see the glory of Jesus described there, they will slowly become like Him. But we must be realistic. We do see the glory of Jesus as we read the word. But then we also see how far we are from Him in terms of character. It is those who then seek God's help to overcome sin who begin to stop sinning increasingly, and slowly begin to partake of His nature. But at the same time God knows that this will not happen immediately and that we may fail now and then, and so He continues to offer us forgiveness if we fall.
Before we were born again, we used to follow the inclinations of our sinful nature and did not worry about sin, except that we took care not to get caught. But now when God has given us a new heart, we find in our heart a strong distaste for sin and a desire not to sin. The Bible calls this experience as becoming 'dead to sin' or dead towards sin (Rom.6:11). With this new mind and direction, we now have to make efforts to avoid things that can cause us to be tempted to sin, and consciously make efforts to avoid sinning (vv.12,13). It is then that we find ourselves experiencing more and more of victory over sin (v.14). Jesus said that anyone who wants to be a disciple in order to become like Him must follow the path of the cross (Lk.9:23).
We read the Bible. That helps us to see what we are in the sight of God, and teaches us what we must do. We pray and ask God for help for carrying out the practice that will lead us to victory. We become a part of a church so that we can receive encouragement, correction and guidance from others who are going in the same direction. But it is only when we actually take up our cross, deny ourselves and follow Jesus doing His will that we become more and more sanctified. This is where many Christians suffer from lack of understanding.
Even when we start on this way, it is not guaranteed that we will finish the race successfully. We see many people giving up along the way. If we give up or stop holding on to faith, we can even get broken off from God (Rom.11:19,20). There are many other places in the Bible that warn us about this.
Glorification
Even when we are on the path of overcoming, it is always true that we still carry with us remains of our old sinful nature. In other words, we do not become sinless and perfect without sin, or like God at any time on earth. Sanctification has to continue all the time here. But then, salvation cannot be complete until God frees us from the presence of our sinful nature too. God does this in eternity when we stand before Him (1Jn.3:2)(1Jn.3:2). What does this mean to be like Him? Of course, we do not become gods but we remain as created beings, just like angels stand before God. Our physical body is transformed into a spiritual body, just like the one Jesus received when He was resurrected (1Cor.15:42-44). We will be rid of our sinful flesh from which we used to be tempted on earth. God has not given too much description about this glorified body or what we would be doing there throughout eternity. But the good news is that we will be totally free from the thing that caused us to sin on earth.Some people wrongly imagine that when it says we shall become like Him, it is referring to our sudden transformation into His character. If that is correct, it does not really matter how we live here, because we all will become like Him at that time. This is not true because God places a great value on our faithfulness and rewards each one according to our deeds. We will not all be equal in eternity. Some will receive a commendation from our Lord that they have been good and faithful stewards.
Is there something we need to do towards glorification? There is! That is to make sure that we endure to the end in salvation (Matt.24:10-13). There are many warnings about this danger of falling away, for example, in Heb.3:12. But many Christians are carelessly assuming that their salvation cannot be lost. If we are realistic, we can see all around us different people who used to be recognised as born again Christians and even who have been prominent as Christian leaders fall away. So we need to endure till the end.
Conclusion
God has given us such a great salvation that would have been totally beyond our reach if it were not by His grace. Instead of taking it for granted and taking cover under a false concept of grace and continuing in our old ways, let us value this salvation in a practical way in our life. Let us be humble before God in acknowledging our sins and our need for salvation, and then apply every form of diligence to partake of this salvation in every part of our life.