THE THREE STAGES OF SALVATION pt 2 And as we walk with Jesus our understanding of sin becomes bigger and better. Things that we did not recognize as sin formerly, all of a sudden become sin to us. This can best be described by an illustration: When you wake up in the morning and the twilight of the early morning sun shines in through the window, you can see a few pieces of furniture in the bedroom, but the rest remains a blur. You see the outline of the cupboard and the dressing table. As time continues and MORE LIGHT comes in, more things become visible. When the sun is fully up, you can see your hairbrush and pins on your dressing table. When we come to Christ we are conscious of a few sinful habits. We gladly give these up. But as we grow in grace and MORE LIGHT of Jesus comes into our lives we are aware of other wrong things. Things we did five years ago we would not do today, and things we do today we would not do five years from now. It is a PROCESS of SANCTIFICATION or HOLINESS. This is working out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is SALVATION PRESENT. Eighteen years after his conversion Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:9, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle …” Six years later he wrote in Ephesians 3:8, “ … I am less than the least of all God’s people…” and five yearslater he wrote in 1 Timothy 1:15, “… Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.” What was the matter with Paul? Had be become worse? No! He only realized more and more his own need for SANCTIFICATION. Never ever do we find Paul professing complete sanctification. SALVATION PRESENT or SANCTIFICATION is a PROCESS as we are co-operating with God, allowing Him to WORK IN US for HIS GOOD PURPOSE. 3. GLORIFICATION Lastly we’ll briefly look at SALVATION FUTURE or GLORIFICATION. In Philippians 3:20-21 we read “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. “ Jesus died on the cross to save our souls from eternal death and granting us eternal life. He is coming back to complete our salvation by changing our bodies into immortal GLORIFIED BODIES to live with Him in the new, forever. Then our salvation is complete. SALVATION FUTURE, GLORIFICATION. So we see that our SALVATION is a THREEFOLD PROCESS. It begins in JUSTIFICATION and deals with the PAST forever. It continues through SANCTIFICATION as WE DEAL WITH THE PRESENT, as we WALK DAILY WITH JESUS and ALLOW GOD TO WORK IN US. It ends in GLORIFICATION, that FUTURE day of our final salvation that we eagerly await. My challenge to each and everyone, including myself, is to WALK THE ROAD OF SANCTIFICATION WITH JESUS, just as Paul did. To be saved and to have dealt with the past is good, but not good enough. We need to deal with the present on a daily basis. We need to allow God daily to work in us for His purpose. We need to grow in holiness as we allow more of the Light of Jesus to come into our lives. We need to continuously put behind us the things that are revealed by the Holy Spirit as wrong. We need to have JESUS CHRIST AS PERSONAL LORD and not only as personal Savior. THIS IS MY CHALLENGE TO US ALL: Let us live as Jesus wants us to live: - have a goal to be like Him, a holy and sanctified life - be humble and consider all others better than ourselves (Philippians 2:3) - be submissive unto God our Father at all times Let us allow God to work in us and have His way in us: -to change us according to His purpose - to change our ways of living and doing things, to what He wants them to be - to heal our hurts and pains and make us new Let us be open and sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit: - and turn from things He shows us as wrong - make right with others when He calls us to do so - go and do what He tells us when He tells us.-kirsteinonline
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 10:57:04 +0000
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