“What
do you mean you are saved? Saved from
what?” That is the question we
started with last week. Our answer is
that we are saved from sin. We are
looking at the 3 aspects of salvation from sin.
First, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ as the One who died for our
sins we are at that moment forever saved from the Penalty of our sin. This is called Justification, which means to
be legally cleared of the charges in God’s court and declared righteous. If you are a Christian then this occurred at
that moment in the past when you first put your trust in Jesus Christ and
became a Christian. The Bible says that
God no longer sees us “in sin”, but, now He sees us “in Christ”. We have a new standing before God, a new
position where we have been set apart by God and for God.
Illustration. Evan said something to me one time when I was
getting my nice clothes on for some event:
“Dad are you getting your ‘handsome boy’ clothes on?’” In our house handsome boy clothes are those
clothes that aren’t like other clothes.
They are set apart from everyday clothes. Handsome boy clothes are what you wear for
special occasions, they’re better quality and better looking than your everyday
clothes. You’re more careful with
handsome boy clothes than you are with your play clothes. When we became Christians God set us apart,
and now we’re given a special position.
All our old clothes that were dirty and filthy from our sin were taken
away from us, and now He has clothed us with pure white righteousness.
Secondly we
learned that we are in a lifelong process of being saved from the ruling power
of sin in our lives. This is
Sanctification, which relates to our daily conduct being transformed to be more
like Christ and His righteousness.
Justification removes the consequences of sin from us immediately and
totally. Sanctification removes the
conduct of sin from us, incrementally and gradually.
Think of
Sanctification like ironing clothes.
When you pull clothes out of the dryer they are clean, but, they usually
still can’t be worn quite yet. That’s
because they need to be ironed to get all the wrinkles out. When you become a Christian you are pulled
out of the dryer all clean of your sin.
But, now you need to have your wrinkles smoothed out so that the Lord
can use you more and more. Getting the
wrinkles out will take place for your entire life.
So we covered
those 2 last week: saved from the
Penalty of sin and saved from the Power of sin.
We were saved from sin in the Past which dealt with sin’s penalty. And we are currently being saved in the
present from sin’s power. This week we
need to conclude this topic with the final point: Salvation from sin in the Future.
Several passages
speak of our future salvation. Read Romans
13:11; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 3:2-3.
#3: Salvation in the Future: Saved from the Presence of Sin
Salvation from
sin in the Future refers to our being saved from the Presence of Sin. This is called glorification. The Bible tells us that we will experience
something in the future called glorification.
In Romans 8:30 it says, “And those He predestined, He also called;
those He called, He also justified; those He justified He also glorified.”
Glorification has to do with our bodies being glorified. Philippians 3:21 says Jesus Christ will in
the future when He returns “transform our lowly bodies so that they will
be like His glorious body.” Each
of us who belong to Jesus Christ will receive a glorified body like His. What can we know about these bodies?
First, it means
we will finally be set free from the presence of sin in our bodies. Justification
is the removal of sin’s penalty.
Sanctification is the removal of sin’s power. Glorification is the removal of sin’s abiding
presence in us. Remember last week we
taught that even though we are forgiven for all our sins, the sin nature still
lives inside of us and it is still manufacturing sinful desires within us? When we are divorced from the sin nature in
the future
Well the vehicle
the sin nature uses to express itself is our bodies. In other words, the sin nature works to
control our bodies so that we use our bodies to act out the sinful desires we
have within us. For us as Christians we
find this inner desire to do good is simultaneously met with fierce opposition
also from within us. It’s not the devil,
it’s not the world, it’s us – something inside of us. In other words we have a sin nature inside of
us that God did not remove when we were saved and that sin nature makes us want
to use our bodies and minds for sin.
Yet, at the same time we have a new nature that makes us want to use our
bodies and minds for righteousness (Romans 7:15-23; Galatians 5:17).
This inner
struggle we have to act out righteousness is a bitter thing for us. Paul cried out in Romans 7:24, “What a
wretched man I am! Who will rescue me
from this body of death?!” He then
answers his own question, “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our
Lord!” Just like Paul, we who love the
Lord Jesus Christ hate that we find in ourselves a competing want to sin. We now know righteousness because we know
Christ, and so we hate that we still have powerful attractions to sin. We love Him and want to please Him and this
makes us hate the sin that still resides within us, constantly pulling us away
from Him.
This is why I am
learning more and more from Scripture that as Christians death is a welcome
emancipation from this bitter war with sin being waged right within us. Peter describes it as a war when he says in 1
Peter 2:11, “…abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your souls.” James also describes it as an inner battle in
James 4:1, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle
within you?” Passing on from
this life separates us from sin’s presence and brings us into the Lord’s
presence. As believers our view of death
is radically changed by Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 2:15 says all men were held in slavery to the devil “by
their fear of death.” But now
with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55 we say, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where O death is your sting? But thanks be to God, He gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Death is a
release for us Christians. It is that
final threshold to full and complete liberation from sin where we are set free
from this body of sin (Romans 6:6). At
last it will come, emancipation from the corrupting influence of our sinful
bodies – yet this is only through death.
For every one of us as Christians there is that daily inner struggle
with sin. We hate it (Romans 7). But that struggle now is only temporary. Someday we will released from that most
intimate and savage war that is waged within us. If you love righteousness and hate sin then this release is something
that will be most desirable to you. The
more you grow spiritually the more sensitive you will be to this war inside
yourself. But understanding the hope we
are given of a future glorification, the more eagerly you should welcome that
coming day.
Imagine that
first feeling of ultimate purity when the contamination of sin is taken away
from you. We can’t imagine it because we
have always lived with sin inside of us.
It’s like trying to imagine sunlight when you’ve been blind you’re whole
life. It’s like trying to imagine what
it feels like after a hot bath with lots of soap if you’ve never taken a
bath. You’ve always been covered in
dirt. We’ve always been dirty with sin –
how can we imagine anything else? Oh but
wait, it’s coming. The worst thing would
for us to have to live in these bodies forever, always sharing this body with
the presence of sin. Praise God that we
will be glorified and that it is yet to come!
Comments
Post a Comment