Now that is glorious!
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We’ve spent the last two posts vetting the theological concepts of justification and sanctification. The concept of justification occurs throughout the New Testament.
For example, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus [ Romans 3:26]. God can justify the sinner and still be just because the Son of God, Jesus Christ, paid the penalty for the sins of all mankind for all of time. His death on the cross served that purpose. The wages of sin is death [Rom.6:23]. Jesus had no sin because He is God. Ergo, His death wasn’t for His own sins but for everyone else’s. Consequently God is both just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus as their personal substitute sin offering.
Sanctification also fills the pages of the New Testament. By way of example, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure [Philippians 2:12-13]. God lives in the saved person, the born again person, the person who has been justified by faith in Christ Jesus.
The Christian has God’s new life already in him/her. Our job is to mature spiritually so that we learn how to allow God control over our life. Instead of living in the power of our old life according to what we think, we live in the power of the Holy Spirit according to the Word of God. This maturing process is known as sanctification, and it lasts throughout our time here on earth. The old life remains inside the Christian and he/she has to choose to submit to it or else heed the Holy Spirit.
The third stage of salvation occurs when Christians are raptured, that point of time when the Lord Jesus calls us to meet Him in the clouds. At that time God’s kids will be clothed in their new resurrection bodies, and this will be their state through all eternity. This resurrection body is like that of the resurrected Christ. He is totally without sin, and so will we be thenceforth. No longer will temptation find a home in us. We will nevermore commit sin.
An example of glorification in the New Testament is in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53,
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
In Scripture the number “3” often typifies the superlative degree. For instance, we drive a car, someone else drives a better car, and then there is the best car. “Car” is the base degree, “better car” is the comparative degree, and “best car” is the superlative degree. Consider that there is the thrice holy God, and He is holy, holy, holy. This is Scripture typology to mean that God is the MOST HOLY GOD, the holiest God. No one can compare with Him.
By the same token man’s salvation is comprised of three stages: the past or perfect tense stage, the continuous present tense stage, and the future tense stage. Biblical typology reads this as meaning that our salvation is the most complete in every way. Nothing can be added to it. It is lacking in nary a thing. Praise the Lord!
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Genesis: Volume 1 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B00507WC86
