Friday, July 24, 2009

Salvation: Past - Future - Present

From chapter 6 of Schaeffer's True Spirituality:

"Eternity will be wonderful, but there is one thing heaven will not contain, and that is the call, the possibility, and the privilege of living a supernatural life here and now by faith before we see Jesus face-to-face."
"Therefore, for the Christian, justification is past[...] In the future, there is glorification[...] Sanctification is our present relationship to our Lord, the present tense."
"The Christians life is not an unbroken, inclined plane. Sometimes it is up, and sometimes- we must all acknowledge if we are not deluding ourselves- it is down. While it is not possible to be more or less justified, it is possible to be more or less sanctified. Justification deals with the guilt of sin; sanctification deals with the power of sin in the Christian's life..."
"In certain ways, sanctification is the most important consideration for the Christian now, because that is the point where we are. It is the present portion of salvation, and in this sense it is the most important consideration of the Christian now. Justification is once for all; sanctification is continuous, from our acceptance of Christ right up to our death."
It's not often that I view my process of sanctification as something to relish while I'm here. It's not always fun making the tough decisions that, as time goes on, will make me more Christ-like. But I'm challenged yet again to change my way of thinking, to enjoy this moment-to-moment living by faith for God.

3 comments:

  1. Again, nice post Chris!

    It makes me want to do a Life Group on the 'order of salvation'.

    What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah for sure, it would be a douzy of a life group, a lot of disagreement I think..........sign me up!

    ReplyDelete