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NASB | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 7:24 ¶ "So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, will be like a wise man [a far-sighted, practical, and sensible man] who built his house on the rock. [Luke 6:47-49] |
Subject: What is perfected for all time? |
Bible Note: Rest assured that I consider myself justified by God's grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone. I wouldn't be a very good Calvinist if I didn't! :) I think this discussion hinges on what I have perceived to be two very different views regarding the application of Christ's redemption to the believer, or what many have termed the "order of salvation." The view you hold seems to be that everything that Christ's death has accomplished has already been given to us at the moment of salvation. You think (erroneously) that my view holds that nothing happens until we die. I think that the Bible presents salvation as a process that began in eternity past, has ramifications for our life in the present, and will inevitably be culminated in the future. Taking passages such as Romans 8:29-30 and Hebrews 10:14 into account, I see that my salvation began before the foundation of the world, when I was foreknown and predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. Centuries before I was born, the actual atonement of Christ for my sins took place in Judea. All of these things took place not only while I was still dead in my sins, but before I even existed! During my lifetime, I was called by the Holy Spirit, regenerated, and then justified (declared righteous before God) by means of faith in Christ's accomplished work. Christ paid for my sins in the first century, but the application of that came much later. Therefore, even though Romans 8:29-30 says that all those God foreknew and predestined he also called and justified (all past tense verbs), there was a point in your life and in mine when we had been foreknown and predestined but neither called nor justified (i.e. between our first birth and our second one). So for us calling and justification are past-tense realities (although not so for many of the foreknown on earth now who have yet to embrace Christ). Likewise, at our conversion we were set apart and we are progressively being made (by God's grace and the power of God's Spirit in us) more like Christ in this life in our attitudes and actions. This is sanctification, and it is a guaranteed part of our salvation as well. This is the stage we are in now, where God works in us to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). Glorification still awaits us, as I indicated in my previous post, but that does not mean that it is a mere possibility. God is the author of all of these events, from foreknowledge to glorification, and as Jesus said in John 6, no one is going to snatch me out of His hand. So while I hold that aspects of our salvation have not beome a present reality for us, I definitely believe that my hope for them is steadfast and sure, based on God's promises. That is why I think the Bible makes use of the past tense for things we have not experienced yet; because from God's eternal perspective, they are as good as done, an unbreakable chain of my salvation from God's foreknowledge in eternity past, to my regeneration and justification in my own biography, to my present and ongoing sanctification, to my future glorification. From God's eternal view, the deal was done before the world even began! Therefore, it really can;t be said that I am relying on myself, since I was not there when God planned it. --Joe! |