What does it mean to become saved? (Chart)
What does it mean to become saved?
| Man Before Salvation | Salvation / Redemption | Man After Salvation |
| Dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1) | Resurrected by God (Col. 2:12) | Have life in our mortal bodies (Rom. 8:11) |
| Slave of sin (Rom. 6:16) | Set free in Christ (Rom. 8:2) | Slave of righteousness (Rom. 6:18) |
| Always in the flesh (Rom. 8:8) | Born again (1 Peter 1:3) | Able to be ‘in the Spirit’ (Rom. 8:13) |
| Spirit is not inside (Rom. 8:9) | Chosen by God (Eph. 1:4) | Spirit is inside (Rom. 8:9) |
| Child of the Devil (John 8:44) | Adopted by God (Rom 8:15) | Child of God the Father (Rom 8:16) |
| Enemy of God (James 4:4) | Peace with God (Rom. 5:1) | Friend of God (James 2:23) |
| In the darkness (John 12:35) | Called out of darkness (1 Pet. 2:9) | In the light (1 John 1:7) |
| Domain of Darkness (Col. 1:13) | Qualified and delivered by God (Col. 1:12-13) | Kingdom of Son of God (Col. 1:13) |
| Produce works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19) | Flesh crucified (Gal. 5:24) | Produce fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) |
| Mind blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4) | God shines light on the heart (2 Cor. 4:6) | Have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6) |
| Do not repent (Matt. 11:20) | God grants repentance (Acts 11:18) | Repentant (Matt. 3:8) |
| Vessel of wrath (Rom. 9:22) | Prepared by God (Rom. 9:23) | Vessel of mercy (Rom. 9:23) |
| Eternal fire (Matt. 25:41) | Gives eternal inheritance (Heb. 9:15) | Eternal life (Jude 1:21) |
The work of God the Father – Designs Salvation:
God the Father chooses us before the foundation of the world to be saved (Eph. 1:4)
God the Father loves us in Jesus and gives us to Him (Rom. 8:39, John 6:37)
The work of God the Son, Jesus Christ – Works Salvation:
Jesus lays his life down for his sheep (John 10:15)
Gave Himself up so we would be redeemed, purified, and zealous for good (Titus 2:14)
The work of the God the Holy Spirit – Brings Salvation in conjunction w/ the Word (Rom. 10:17):
Holy Spirit opens hearts (Acts 16:14)
Holy Spirit helps us and teaches us the words of God (John 14:26)
Going Deeper
Our church is currently in a series of sermons called "Deep Waters: Basic Tools For The Deep."
Erin and I shared the following thoughts on going deeper with our teaching pastor, as part of the diverse sermon research team, and thought we would share them with you as well.
People can get really confused about what it means to be ‘deep’. The ‘deep’ of the world is usually confounding, off-putting, befuddling, ‘profound’ in a sense that is exclusive—not captivating, exposes ‘truth’—but not Godly truth, and is entrancing—to the peculiarly interested. So what does it mean to be deep in the sense we should want to be at Apex?
What it means to be spiritually deep, I believe, is to be deeply God-centered in our thinking. As we peel through the layers of our minds and hearts, what do we find deep in our hearts and minds? Do we find thoughts and emotions centered on, captured by, God? Do we expose roots and centers grown out of and revolving around self? What is the nucleus powering our lives? What are our really deep passions? The purpose of this series should perhaps be to have those deep passions transformed by God. Why? If we try to take self-centered God-respecting-but-not-honoring (as we ought) vessels deeper… they will implode, for the pressure of depth is too much for man-entertained, man-entranced, world-living people.
It takes heavenly-minded, God-fearing, God-honoring, servants of God—loving Him most over all things, with hearts, souls, and minds taken over by His glory to go deep.
Some may say it takes going deeper to become heavenly-minded, God-fearing, God-honoring, lovers of God. I disagree, in a primary sense. I believe, chiefly, it takes humility, a self emptied of self. It takes submission to whatever God wants, whatever God says. It takes brokenness and teachableness. Remember, the foremost obstacle to moving deeper into God is the wrath of God. God’s wrath keeps us from knowing God, because of pride, because of sin.
Now, I’m thinking, if it is done right, going deeper doesn’t necessarily only take those kinds of people, but it can make those kinds of people. If our shepherd is truly deep in a body that has a shell (some people) with an ability to sustain the depth, the (other) people may grow to sustain depth as well.
Deep WatersWhat is God chiefly passionate about? Himself—His glory. I can remember, in a sermon less than a year ago, Rob, our pastor, boldly declared, “God loves Himself,” followed by something that reminded me of the statement phrased by pastor John Piper, “God loves Himself more than He loves us.” It's a true statement and I think most people either ignore it or don't question it like they should. What are the implications of that truth for us, and how we should view and love God because of it? What does it mean? We should ask, “What does it mean about God,” but that would be a deep question. People want to know, “What does it mean about me,” and, for beginners, I would simply answer them.
On page 10 of his book, "The Soul Winner," Charles Spurgeon writes, “We would labor earnestly to raise a believer in salvation by free will into a believer in salvation by grace, for we long to see all religious teaching built upon the solid rock of truth and not upon the sand of imagination.”
My thoughts on depth sprang from prayerful meditation on the often asked question, “If everything is predestined, why do anything?” By “anything” what they really mean is “anything for God, anything obedient, anything that lasts, anything that isn’t all about me,” and the first answer is, “Because it’s better than anything else you could do instead!”
That which is done for God—the eternal, the lasting, the weighty, the loving takes God to be done. It takes being filled with and supplied by and used by God which is truly better than ‘anything’ else and is recognized by deep lovers of God more than anyone else. Secondly, not another answer but a judgment, is that the questioner ultimately reveals a proud heart that is sinfully set up against the consummate glory of God. Why? Look at the implications of the question. If God decides / has decided what will happen, then life, the whole world, is all about God. No one has any part to play but God’s ‘part’.
In the question, “If everything is predestined, why do anything?” the alternative to ‘everything’ being ‘predestined’, which is hardly understood at all by the questioner, is that human creatures have self-determining free will power and are at liberty to decide their own fates. Things add up to nothing and evil is pointless and God isn’t adding everything up to something and making important points through all evil (suffering) in our lives. The questioner craves and exalts this power and hates, in his sinful heart, to think that anything good he has done has been worked in him by God and any righteous thing in him is a gift from God. The truth is that the sinner’s free will is compatible with God’s sovereign control over all things from everlasting to everlasting and with that free will “no one does good, not even one.”
The analogy drawn out of the Spurgeon quote above is thus—
Saved by free will : Sand of imagination :: Saved by grace : Solid rock of truth
Too many professing Christians we know would say, “I was saved by God's grace because of a decision I made.” They need to say, “I was saved by God’s grace alone.”
People with foundations of sand don’t do well in deep waters.
Praying the glory of the grace of God in grace would capture all admiration of your soul,
Todd Leroy
"Grace Alone" - Unity Through Ambiguity Alone
I just finished reading a book by R.C. Sproul titled, "Getting the Gospel Right." Erin and I purchased it to assist our study of the true and complete Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sproul taught us how ambiguous language can be used to concoct a gospel both Evangelicals and Catholics agree with and demonstrated to us how the gospel that unites all Evangelicals employs language similarly ambiguous. Sproul painstakingly details the ambiguities of the former and then simply ignores those of the latter, which inspired me to write what you see here.
The first purpose of Sproul's book is to expose the ambiguities of a document written by thirty-three notable "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" called "The Gift of Salvation" and explain how Evangelicals and Catholics don't agree on an essential element of the Gospel--
Sola Fide, or, "Faith Alone" in English. Despite the plain language of the document that both sides can agree with
on the surface, there are deep differences in Evangelical and Catholic theology.
The second purpose of Sproul's book is to present and explain a document written by fifteen Evangelicals, including himself, in reaction to "The Gift of Salvation" called "The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration." The document carries the signatures of over one hundred very diverse Evangelicals including some of the same persons involved in the Evangelical/Catholic document.
Whereas the Evangelical/Catholic document is ambiguous on the doctrine of justification by Faith Alone, the second, purely Evangelical, document is ambiguous on the doctrine of salvation by "Grace Alone" or
Sola Gratia in Latin.
What does it say? Article 14 (of 18) says:
"14. We affirm that, while all believers are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and are in the process of being made holy and conformed to the image of Christ, those consequences of justification are not its ground. God declares us just, remits our sins, and adopts us as his children, by his grace alone, and through faith alone, because of Christ alone, while we are still sinners (Rom. 4:5). We deny that believers must be inherently righteous by virtue of their cooperation with God's life-transforming grace before God will declare them justified in Christ. We are justified while we are still sinners."
The allusion to the five solas or five 'alones' of the Protestant Reformation is obvious in Article 14 but "Grace Alone" had and has a distinctly different defintion from the one implied here.
What does Article 14 say God does by his grace alone?
"God declares us just, remits our sins, and adopts us as his children." That is true but what does Grace Alone really mean?
It is clearly stated in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For
by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
Salvation itself, as a whole, is the gift of God. God saves sinners from his wrath by grace alone. Such a great salvation is more than justification, remission of sin, and adoption, as stated in the confines of "The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration."
The following illustration is actually what some of the signers of "The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration" really believe about salvation and grace.
Adoption <-- Remission of sins <-- Justification <-- Conditional Regeneration based on exercise of faith <-- People put faith in Jesus Christ <-- God elects people conditionally based on 'foreseen faith' <-- God 'looks' into the future to see who deserves to be elected This is
wrong.
Now, here is the correct Biblical illustration in parallel:
Adoption <-- Remission of sins <-- Justification <-- People receive faith in Jesus Christ <-- Unconditional Regeneration based on God's election in conjunction with the hearing of the Word <-- God elects people unconditionally according to the counsel of his perfect will <-- God knows that fallen people will naturally only ever exchange his glory for anything and everything else (For comparison's sake, there are many things left out of the orders above such as
creation, atonement, imputation outer call, inner call, sanctification, etc. For more details,
click here to open the order of salvation section of Monergism.com in a new window.)
Election is essential. No one hears the Word, gains faith, repents, and believes who is not, among other things, also chosen by God before the foundation of the world (
Eph. 1:4). The question over whether it is unconditional (by grace alone) or conditional (not by grace alone) could be the focus of this entry but rather I will hone in on unconditional vs. conditional regeneration.
My first reason for doing this is that I believe the deep disagreement on grace alone is more evident when we look at regeneration vs. election because it is closer in the order of salvation to justification.
My second reason is that the Baptist Faith & Message says this in section IV: "In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification." I wonder what the author's mean by 'broadest sense.' If they had a list of specific terms to pick from and only those fit under the umbrella of 'salvation', I would understand their language. However, I think it is obvious that, when it comes down to theological terms like 'sanctification', salvation includes many more than are listed there--the chief one in my mind being election. Now, the BF&M is a solid, monergistic, God-exalting document that otherwise gets election right, so I will consider its statement a premise and make regeneration the point of exposing the ambiguity of the subject.
Synergists, (believers in conditional regeneration), do not believe that God's regeneration is by grace, at all. If regeneration is not a gift of grace then that is saying that some people
deserve to be regenerated and salvation is not entirely by grace alone.
Monergists, (believers in unconditional regeneration), like us, believe that everything, planned and performed, from before the foundation of the world to the end, not just including salvation, but creation, and every good thing that happens to anyone at all, is grace.
By restricting the agreed upon statement of what God does by grace alone for sinners in Article 14, the synergists reveal that they believe God only does some things by grace, and that totally saving grace is not free for us but is rewarded only after people choose to be saved by free will. They believe that God has ultimately left their eternal destiny in their own hearts, to choose to trust in him or in idols, without recognizing that they would never ever trust in him
before being born again by the 'wind the blows where it wishes' (
John 3). They have read that God gives 'gives grace to the humble' (
Prov. 3:34) but have neglected the fact that humble hearts of flesh are only transplanted in place of hearts of stone by the irresistable grace of God (
Ezek. 11:19).
"The Gospel of Jesus Christ: An Evangelical Celebration" says God declares us just, remits our sins, and adopts us as his children by grace alone, without stating whether or not God does anything more or anything less by grace alone. If the purpose of this group of Evangelicals was truly an attempt to 'get the gospel right', I would expect those who know and understand the Biblical doctrines of grace, (ie. R.C. Sproul), to not let the phrase Grace Alone be left up to so much interpretation.
There is unity in this gospel but only at the cost of using Grace Alone ambiguously.
Notes:
- [One way to tell how familiar people are with good doctrine is to listen to the subtle ways in which they speak of justification. The term 'by' is more accurately stated along with the phrase Faith Alone, not Grace Alone like in Article 14. Romans 3:28 says, "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law." See also, Rom. 5:1, Gal. 2:16 and 3:24. If this is all new to you, and you've been reading this wondering about James 2:24, click here to see John Piper's great resolution of the seemingly contradictory texts.]
- ['Foreseen faith' and the idea that God 'looks' into the future to learn something are vain philosophies justified in part by flawed Biblical exigesis and misunderstandings of Biblical terms. Click here to go to a good page on foreknowledge. My purpose here, like Sproul's first purpose in "Getting the Gospel Right" is to simply present the differences between the two beliefs, not to prove to every reader which view is the Biblical one.]
- [What I've written should not be taken as an attempt to bash R.C. Sproul, given my understanding of his intended scope and purpose in writing "Getting the Gospel Right". It is the first book we've ever owned by Sproul but not for not having heard plenty of good things about him in testimonies about some of his other works including "The Holiness of God" and "Chosen by God".]
Links of Reference:
Praying that the truth of 'free grace alone from the first to the last' increases your passion for God and for others, thanks for reading, may the Lord bless you,
Todd Leroy