Justification, Sanctification, Glorification
Salvation is in three parts; justification, sanctification, and glorification.
When a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as his own Lord and Saviour; believes that His vicarious, substitutionary, atoning death was in that person's place and does surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord of his/her life, that person is what we call "saved", whereas before then he or she was "lost"--separated from God by their sins and iniquity. They are at that moment born of the Holy Spirit, reconciled to God, and so headed to heaven at death. Justification is in a moment of time--instantaneous at the moment of genuine faith, as God gives the new birth. But the person is born a baby in Christ. One must grow. There are three steps in the Christian life, as follows:
- Justification--deliverance from the penalty of sin. Past provision. I was saved. If you are saved, that is in your past, when you trusted Christ. Christ dying in your place has delivered you from sin's penalty and you will never have to pay your sin debt in hell, or the lake of fire. "I tell you the truth, he that believes on Me has everlasting life" (John 6.47).
- Sanctification--deliverance from the power of sin. Present provision. I am being saved. The Holy Spirit works in you day-by-day to conform you to the image of Christ in your character. It is an ongoing, lifetime work of the Spirit in your life. You will grow in holiness your entire life until your character is like that of the Lord Jesus. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8.29).
- Glorification--deliverance from the presence of sin. Future provision. I will be saved. At the resurrection or the translation of the saints, you will receive a new body, a body like the Lord's body. Sin will be totally eradicated. Its presence or its pull will never be known again. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3.2).
This fallen world is not the Millennium. We still struggle with the "sin(s) that so easily beset us." We are called to "lay aside every weight" and run the race well. As gravity pulls against the body until we sag all over in our old age, so sin continually pulls against the saint. Praise God for the day when we are delivered not just from sin's penalty, and from its power, but finally and completely from its presence.
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 8.24-25b).
MrWonder
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