Written by Andy H. |
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
The order of salvation must be understood against the backdrop of man’s total depravity and moral inability. Therefore, God initiates and he does so by sovereignly, effectually calling by life-giving regenerating power. Man then responds in faith and repentance and conversion, and as a result of that he’s joined to Jesus Christ, justified freely, by the grace of God, separated from the bondage of sin, adopted into the family of God.

Faith and repentance, union with Christ, justification all happen at the point of salvation. In addition to that, following justification—not even following, but accompanying it—is what we call definitive or positional sanctification. You would know that when the Bible talks about sanctification, it talks about it in three aspects of positional sanctification, progressive sanctification, and perfect or final sanctification. Definitive or positional sanctification is, when by the Spirit of God, we are freed from the bondage of sin. As Paul says in Romans 6, “having been freed from sin, you’re now enslaved to God.” All believers have been positionally and definitively sanctified. All believers have been freed from the bondage of sin. They have been delivered from the dominion of and darkness translated into the kingdom of God’s beloved son.
Paul told the Corinthians, “You are the sanctified, you have been sanctified in Jesus Christ.” And he said in 1 Corinthians 1:2, “to those who had been sanctified.” They are already sanctified in Jesus Christ. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6, “such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Past tense actions that have separated us from sin. All believers at the point of salvation are positionally sanctified. That means set apart in consecration to God, separated and free from the bondage of sin.
Adoption
Peter said, “that you are kept by the power of God for an inheritance ready to be revealed.” This world is not our home, we are not to seek the things of this life. Our home is in heaven, our inheritance is in heaven. Our Father is in heaven and every spiritual blessing is ours now and shall be then. He is no longer a righteous judge, he is a loving Father. This is the order of salvation of effectual calling, regeneration, conversion, union with Christ, justification, positional sanctification, and adoption.
All I’ve just mentioned happen instantaneously and it often happens upon the subconscious, non-experiential part of man. The question is how is that salvation applied to us? It is applied by God, the powerful effectual call, regenerating grace causing us to be born again, giving us the gift of faith and repentance that we come to Christ is true conversion. We’re joined to Jesus Christ and we are set apart to God, justified freely by his grace, adopted into his family.
Progressive Sanctification
After that, the adventure and the journey of progressive sanctification begins. We’re told to grow 2 Peter 3:18, “into the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter says in 2 Peter  2, “like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word,” that you may grow in respect to salvation. Sanctification as you well know has two parts. Ephesians 4 and Colossians 2 talk about this: the mortification of the old man, and the renewal of the new man into the image of Christ. Now hear me carefully, salvation has several dimensions. We have been saved, we are being saved, we will be saved. We have been pardoned from the guilt of sin, we have been freed from the power of sin. We are being cleansed from the pollution of sin and one day we will be freed from the presence of sin.
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Written by Andy H. |
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Justification is not progressive, it is instantaneous. It doesn’t change our nature or our condition. It changes our status or our legal record. It is not something that we produce. It is something outside of us. It is not our own righteousness. It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

As we’ve been surveying the various steps in the order of salvation (from Effectual Calling to Glorification), we have covered Effectual Calling, Regeneration, and Conversion in previous articles. In this article, we will be surveying Union with Christ and Justification.
As soon as a man believes in Christ, certain wonderful things immediately transpire as well. First of all, he is united to Jesus Christ personally, spiritually, and experientially. Second of all, he is immediately and instantaneously justified by the grace of God, through faith. Third of all, he is instantly and immediately definitely or positionally sanctified—free from the bondage of sin. And fourth of all, he is immediately, legally, spiritually, and experientially adopted into the family of God. All of those truths cluster around and are the immediate blessing and result of conversion. When a man repents and believes, he is immediately spiritually joined to Jesus Christ.
This is the big big subject. The Bible talks about our union with Christ, and directly or indirectly mentions our connection to Jesus Christ, over a hundred and fifty times in the New Testament. You know the term, “in Christ,” “in Jesus Christ,” “in him.” The vine is connected to the branches, the branches to the vine; the husband to the wife; the building to the foundation. These are some of the ways that the Bible illustrates our union with Christ. But when the Bible talks about union with Christ, it talks about it in four stages. Union with Christ is the deep subterranean truth and taproot of all blessings in the Christian life. All blessings in the Christian life come forth from our union with Christ. But when the Bible talks about union with Christ, it talks about it in four stages.
But, all blessings of the spiritual life flow out of our union with Jesus Christ. This verse (1 Corinthians 1:30) was one of Calvin’s favourite verses, and I encourage you to read Calvin. I believe it is volume two in regards to the issues of the application of salvation and justification and sanctification and union with Christ. “By his doing, not our own, by God’s doing, we are in Christ Jesus who became to us the wisdom from God and that wisdom produced righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” We have a twofold aspect of that union. One is legal by representation and the other is spiritual by regeneration. The former gives us a new position, the latter gives us a new condition. The former deals with the guilt of sin, the latter deals with the power and pollution of sin. The former is the source of our justification, our legal union. The latter is the source of our sanctification in our growth in Jesus Christ.Let me review them very quickly. First of all, We are united to Christ and in Christ in eternity past.
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Written by Andy H. |
Monday, September 13, 2021
When we talk about the doctrine of salvation planned in eternity past, this involves foreknowledge, predestination, and election. In its accomplishment in redemptive history, it concerns Jesus’ righteous life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection. But, our focus is on salvation applied in the personal experience of the believer.

In the first part, we had focussed on the life of the preacher, but in this part, we look more specifically at Paul’s second exhortation here in 1 Timothy 4:16, “pay close attention to yourself and to your doctrine or to your teaching.” He’s not just talking about the manner of his presentation. He’s talking about the content of his message and it’s the responsibility of the preacher to “Earnestly contend,” Jude said, “for the faith once for all delivered.” And the Apostle Paul said that, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine for reprove, correction, training in righteousness that the man of God would be equipped thoroughly furnished for every good work.” The first use of scripture is for doctrine, for biblical truth. So then as Paul said in 1 Titus 1:9, “the elder must be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute and rebuke those that contradict.” So, it is absolutely crucial, and oftentimes failures in ministry or fruitlessness in ministry is a direct result of the preacher’s inconsistent life or the preacher’s poor understanding of doctrine. There’s much false teaching, and weak erroneous doctrine in America, in China, and in India, and all over the world. And the Apostle Paul told the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20 that “be on guard for yourselves and for all the Church of God, over whom the Holy Spirit made you overseers to shepherd the church of God that he purchased with his own blood.” Why? “Because after I depart savage wolves will come in, not sparing the flock and number two from among you false teachers will arise leading people astray.”
That’s what we are focusing on: the doctrine of salvation. This will be a review for some of you and new for some of you, but I do not apologize, as Peter said, “to stir you up by way of reminder even though you know these things and have been grounded in them so that after my departure you may be able to call them to mind.” So we’re talking about the doctrine of salvation.It is absolutely crucial that in addition to deepening holiness in your life, you are growing in and understanding the truth of God. There’s some truth that is absolutely crucial and essential. There’s some doctrines that are important but are non-essential. For example, it is not necessarily a salvation issue of a person whether his eschatology is amillennial, post-millennial and pre-millennial. It is not absolutely crucial in regards to pneumatology or his doctrine of the Holy Spirit that he is a cessationist or non-cessationist regarding the spiritual gifts. Also in regards to the question of baptism, however, this is a bit more crucial because it can have eternal consequences. If people are hoping in their baptism, that is whether one is a baptist or whether one is a pedobaptist, that is more crucial. But pay attention: we are absolutely required to be certain in our understanding of the foundational doctrine regarding salvation issues.
By way of background, when we talk about the doctrine of salvation, it is usually discussed or presented in three stages. What do we mean Well? First of all, there is salvation planned in the eternity past. Second of all, there is salvation accomplished in redemptive history. Third of all, there is salvation applied in our own personal experience.
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