being a child o f Satan (John 8 :4 4 ), and a member o f his kingdom into that o f being a child and son o f God (John 1 :12 ; Rom. 8:14-17), and a member o f the king dom o f His dear Son (Col. 1 :13 ). These and many more blessings become the believer’s at the moment o f the experience o f regeneration, and are expressed fully in the three aspects o f salvation — past, present, and future.
like faith, and rests in Him through the various experi ences o f life. The key to this kind o f faith is disclosed in Romans six as follows: (1 ) The believer must know o f his union with Christ (6 :1 -10 ), (2 ) the believer must acknowledge this union to be true by faith (6 :1 1 ), (3 ) the believer must present his total life to God with out any reservation (6:12-13), and (4 ) the believer must obey the commands of Christ (6:14-23). (3 ) Future Salvation. Redemption commences with the experience o f the new birth, continues in the ex perience o f present sanctification, and will consummate in the experience o f glorification (Phil. 3:10-14). Every child o f God is certain to arrive at the ultimate goal of salvation (Phil. 1 :6 ), for God has promised eternal life, and He cannot lie (Titus 1 :2 ). This is the eternal hope shining brightly in the heart o f every believer called a pilgrim and sojourner upon the earth (I Pet. 2 :11 ; Heb. 13:14). It is the supreme objective o f the experi ence o f salvation fo r then the saved will be transformed into the likeness o f Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28-29; I John 3 :2 ) receiving their resurrected and glorified bodies (I Cor. 15:51-58; Phil. 3 :20-21), and will dwell forever in a state o f equilibrium and harmony wth the God head, the redeemed o f all the ages, and the good angels in fulfillment o f the divine plan. This tremendous, cos mic event will be initiated at the rapture o f the Church when the Lord Jesus Christ returns for His Bride (John 14:1-3; I Thess. 4 :13-18), and will culminate at the time o f the appearance o f the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 2 1 :Iff.). In contemplation o f this majestic and eternal prospect, one is constrained to say with Paul, “ For I reckon that the sufferings o f this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8 :18 ). In the light o f these irrevocable truths, we believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the answer fo r man’s needs, because He, as Creator and Saviour, is the pulsat ing, sustaining, integrating, and co-ordinating force of this universe and all life. Therefore, all activity, be it spiritual, natural, academic, social, political, profes sional, or otherwise, must center in Him and revolve around Him. It is only in this way that the living gen eration will be conscious o f the fact that: God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name o f Jesus every knee should bow, things under the earth: and that every tongue o f things in heaven, and things in earth, and should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory o f God the Father (Phil. 2 :9-11).
(1 ) Past Salvation. This phase o f redemption is positional, having to do primarily with the fact o f the guilt and the penalty o f sin (Heb. 10:10, 14). Scripture declares that at the time o f the new birth, when true faith is placed explicitly in the finished work o f Christ on the Cross, a sinner is delivered completely and for ever from the guilt and penalty o f past, present, and future sin (Col. 1 :14 ; Gal. 1 :5 ; II Cor. 5:14-21). Re vealed through the doctrines o f justification and sancti fication (in the past tense) this truth is legal in char acter based on the fact that divine justice has been eternally satisfied through the sinless sacrifice o f Jesus Christ — the Lamb o f God (John 1 :29 ), and is, there fore, unchanging and permanent in its results. God attributes judically the righteousness of Jesus Christ to the saved (II Cor. 5 :2 1 ), and treats each believer as a righteous being since the obstacle o f sin has been blotted out (Rom. 5 :1 ). This is the “ good work” o f God begun in the life o f every believer, which will be com pleted in the day o f the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 1 :6 ). (2 ) Present Salvation. While past salvation is posi tional and legal in character, present salvation is practi cal, progressive, and experiential. It is this stage of salvation which concerns the daily moment by moment walk o f the believer in Christ (Col. 2 :6 ). Having deliv ered the sinner from the guilt and penalty o f sin through His death, the Lord Jesus Christ is able and more than willing to deliver the believer from the pow er o f the sin nature through His resurrected life. Also called present sanctification, it is in this aspect o f sal vation that a believer can experience the normal Chris tian life — sometimes called “ the victorious life” or, “ the Spirit-filled life.” I f one is experiencing progres sive sanctification, the result should be a moment-by moment possession o f the peace o f God (Isa 2 6 :3 ; Phil. 4 :5 -7 ). This peace is not necessarily always a good feeling, but rather an attitude o f life reflecting consistent confidence in God regardless o f the present circumstances. Such a life is characterized by stability, because all has been committed to the eternal God who knows what is best fo r every occasion, and who never makes any mistakes, and thus this one delights in His will, and is able to trust Him and His word with child
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