Salvation: Justification, Repentance, Faith, and Sanctification

Posted on Jan 10, 2025 in Religion

Understanding Salvation: A Biblical Perspective

1. Justification and Atonement

  • Justified Atonement: It was a means of reconciling a holy God with sinful humanity. Perfect justice and love were accomplished. People were set free from the power and guilt of sin and restored to fellowship with God.
  • Penalty Substitution: The act of paying the penalty for another.

2. Man’s Predicament and the Need for Repentance

  • Why is man, without God, guilty of sin?
    • Man is born into sin.
    • Man chooses to commit sinful acts.
  • Man’s Predicament: The result of man’s sin is separation from God and his fellow man. Because of this sinful nature that resulted from the fall, man is totally evil, and every part of his nature has been affected: his intellect, emotions, and will. Because of this, it is impossible for him to understand or appreciate spiritual things.
  • Repentance: It is the act of recognizing one’s sins, confessing them to God, and turning away from them completely.

3. Biblical Aspects of Repentance

  • Intellect: A man recognizes, through the ministry of the Word, that he is not right with God.
  • Emotions: This involves self-accusation and genuine sorrow for having offended God.
  • The Will of the Repentant Sinner: It enables man to make a complete turnabout and to begin traveling in God’s direction.

4. The Importance of Salvation and Faith

  • The Experience of Salvation: It is important because it creates joy in the heart of the sinner, causes joy in heaven as the angels of God rejoice, and it also opens the door that leads to faith and the forgiveness of sins.
  • Faith: It is the voluntary act and attitude of a person by which he places his complete confidence in a trusted object, allowing that object to govern his actions.
  • Elements of Saving Faith: Knowledge, Assent, Trust.
  • Jesus is the source of saving faith. It is produced by the Word of God, and the Scriptures lead one to salvation.
  • Importance of Experiencing Saving Faith: A Christian life is fruitless if we do not exercise our faith.

5. Conversion, Repentance, and Faith

  • Relationship Between Conversion, Repentance, and Faith: Conversion is occasionally used to represent all of the activities by which we turn from sin to God.
  • Conversion’s Effect: It means that what a person does is a result of what they are wholly.
  • Importance of Conversion: It turns us away from our evil ways, sin, and eternal death and also turns us to the narrow way that leads to eternal life.

6. Regeneration, Justification, and Adoption

  • Relationship Between Regeneration, Justification, and Adoption: They are all links to salvation.
  • Adoption: It is the act of God’s grace by which He places as sons and daughters in His family the ones who receive Jesus Christ.
  • Blessings of Adoption:
    • We receive good gifts from the Father: “the necessities of life,” protection, instruction, and correction.
    • We become heirs of God with Christ.
    • We have confidence and boldness as we come into the presence of God.

The Process of Salvation: Election, Regeneration, and Justification

1. Election and God’s Foreknowledge

  • The basis for election is God’s foreknowledge. It’s significant because all those who accept God’s offer of salvation will be saved.
  • The Principle of Election: This principle shows us the gracious provision God has made for those who accept His offer of salvation.
  • Comparing God’s Part and Man’s Part in Salvation: God’s part is to choose for His own those who accepted His offer of salvation in Christ, while people play the part of accepting salvation.

2. Regeneration: A New Birth

  • Terms Used to Define Regeneration: “Born of God,” “born again,” “born of water and the Spirit,” “begotten us again.”
  • Characteristics of Regeneration: Spiritual renewal, restoration, recreation.
  • Words that Describe Regeneration:
    • One becomes a new self.
    • One is a new creation or being.
    • One is created in Christ Jesus.
    • Crossing over from death to life.

3. Justification by Faith

  • God’s righteousness is maintained since He does not set aside His moral standards of righteousness when He justifies people.
  • Biblical Source of Justification:
    • “A man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans 3:28).
    • “Righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (Romans 3:22).
  • People are justified by faith alone. We are not saved by faith and works; rather, we are saved by faith that works.

4. Evidences of Adoption

  • Evidences of Adoption: These are the ways in which adoption becomes apparent to us through the things we experience internally and demonstrate externally. For example:
    • We are led by the Spirit of God.
    • We have a sense of belonging to the Father.
    • We obey God.
    • We have love for all God’s people.
    • We have confidence when we approach our Heavenly Father.

Sanctification: The Path to Holiness

1. The Purpose of Sanctification

  • Purpose of Sanctification: To separate or set apart believers from what is profane or worldly and thus make them holy (separate, dedicate, purify).

2. Positional and Progressive Sanctification

  • Positional Sanctification: It’s a change of position, by which a corrupt sinner is changed to a holy worshiper.
  • Progressive Sanctification: It is an ongoing work that is related to a person’s spiritual development.

3. The Process and Goals of Sanctification

  • Process of Sanctification: The believer is elected, called, regenerated, justified, and adopted by God as they respond to the Spirit’s empowering with upright living.
  • Goals of Sanctification:
    • The immediate goal is spiritual maturity, by being transformed into the likeness of our Lord.
    • The ultimate goal is our salvation, “being perfect.”