The Objective, Course of, and Promise of Salvation

An previous story is instructed about Brooke Foss Westcott, the final bishop of Durham within the nineteenth century. One in every of his clerical pals was touring on a prepare and was requested by a Salvation Military officer, “Are you saved?” Curious to understand how Bishop Westcott would have responded, the good friend relayed the query. The bishop paused, smiled, and primarily answered, “Do you imply have I been saved, am I being saved, or will I be saved?”

Bishop Westcott’s assertion teaches what we all know to be true from the Bible: Salvation has completely different tenses. In Christ, we have been saved from sin’s penalty, we are being saved from sin’s energy, and we shall be saved one day from sin’s presence.

The work of God in saving sinners is way extra dynamic than many people understand. Put merely, it offers with previous, current, and future occasions. Salvation in Christ includes an everlasting function, an ongoing course of, and a future promise. The New Testomony attests to every of those three dimensions.

Salvation’s Everlasting Objective

The apostle Paul summed up salvation’s function properly in his letter to the Romans, by which he wrote,

We all know that for individuals who love God all issues work collectively for good, for individuals who are referred to as in line with his function. For these whom he foreknew he additionally predestined to be conformed to the picture of his Son, so that he could be the firstborn amongst many brothers. (Rom. 8:28–29, emphasis added)

We’re saved, in different phrases, to be made like Jesus. To “conform” is to form or to mildew one thing right into a recognizable kind. Christians, then, are those that, by God’s energy, are being formed to mirror the distinct, recognizable character of Christ.

We all know from expertise that we change into like the corporate we preserve. Spouses typically come to share the identical mannerisms. Buddies sometimes share related values and passions. And so God’s youngsters, nurtured by His Phrase and sanctifying work, change into like He who’s “the firstborn amongst many brothers.”

Christians have been saved from sin’s penalty, are being saved from sin’s energy, and shall be saved at some point from sin’s presence.

(The aim in verse 29, by the way, offers the context for the promise in verse 28. After we learn that “for individuals who love God all issues work collectively for good,” we have to perceive it in gentle of how God defines our final “good”: conformity to Christ. Too typically, our personal private definitions of “good” are much more worldly—and fewer wonderful!—than what God has deliberate for us.)

This function is wealthy with implications for us. As a result of God is all the time working to make us like Jesus, wherever we discover ourselves, we’re in a position to say, “Within the panorama of God’s redemptive functions, God is utilizing my circumstances to kind Christlike qualities in me.” For that reason James writes, “Depend all of it pleasure, my brothers, once you meet trials of assorted varieties, for you recognize that the testing of your religion produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full impact, that you could be be excellent and full, missing in nothing” (1:2–4).

We understand that in God’s plan, there are functions He accomplishes in struggling that aren’t achieved some other manner. If we need to be like Jesus, it follows that we are going to endure with Him (Rom. 8:17). However whether or not in trials or triumphs, we will be sure that God is conforming us into the picture of His Son.

In God’s plan, there are functions He accomplishes in struggling that aren’t achieved some other manner.

God’s function within the lives of His individuals leads us to say with the hymn author,

The work which His goodness started
The arm of His energy will full;
His promise is Yea and Amen
And by no means was forfeited but.

Salvation’s Ongoing Course of

If salvation’s function is conformity to Christ, then how does God truly convey that function about? Paul offers us a sign elsewhere in his letters:

The Lord is the Spirit, and the place the Spirit of the Lord is, there’s freedom. And all of us, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being remodeled into the identical picture from one diploma of glory to a different. For this comes from the Lord who’s the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17–18, emphasis added)

If God’s final function for us is to make us like Jesus, then His function at present is to proceed the method—for it is a course of. Paul clearly asserts that actuality when he writes in verse 17 that we “are being remodeled”—a gift steady verb—“into the identical picture” of Christ.

The work of God’s Sprit is to show our gaze towards Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). And as we take a look at Christ, we start to look like Him. By gazing at Jesus, we’re additional remodeled by the glory revealed within the Gospel itself: that He died in our place, releasing us not solely from sin’s penalty but additionally from its dominion.

The continuing means of salvation includes each an energetic and a passive dimension. Our half is to behold the glory of the Lord; God’s half is to rework us into the picture of Christ. Briefly, it’s by the Gospel that we make progress. By seeing the fantastic life Jesus lived (and lives!), we more and more behave how Jesus did and develop in our zeal for the Lord’s glory.

As we take a look at Christ, we start to appear to be Him.

Within the Gospel, we do not forget that God makes us proper with Him not on account of one thing accomplished by us however on account of one thing accomplished for us. We don’t look inside to be made like Christ; we glance outdoors of ourselves and to Christ. Paul summarizes the energetic and passive dimensions of this transformation greatest in his letter to the Philippians: “Work out your salvation with worry and trembling, for it’s God who works in you, each to will and to work for his good pleasure” (2:12–13).

Salvation’s Future Promise of Salvation

Lastly, one other apostle, John, helps us perceive higher how the salvation that God functions and accomplishes carries with it a future promise:

Beloved, we’re God’s youngsters now, and what we shall be has not but appeared; however we all know that when he seems we will be like him, as a result of we will see him as he’s. (1 John 3:2)

John’s phrases describe for us an immense consolation: Regardless of all our stumbling and failings this aspect of eternity, we have now the promise of salvation—that when Christ seems, we shall be like Him.

After we learn John’s promise along with Paul, we all know that our future salvation includes not solely being like Christ but additionally being with Him in eternity (Phil. 3:21). Paul anticipates us being like Jesus; John seems ahead to us being with Jesus. Each realities are true for the Christian.

After we think about salvation in its three dimensions—previous, current, and future—we acknowledge that the decision of Christianity is to change into what we already are in Christ. Mere ethics is an invite to change into what we’re not. Salvation causes us to change into what we’re by advantage of our union with the crucified and resurrected Jesus.

As we look ahead to the promise of our future salvation, we might do properly to make the lyrics of this Anglican hymn our prayer:

I want to be like Jesus,
So humble and so variety.
His phrases had been all the time tender,
His voice all the time divine.
However no, I’m not like Jesus,
As anybody can see.
O Savior, come and assist me,
And make me identical to Thee.

This text was tailored from the sermon “Be Like Christ” by Alistair Begg.