11 Oct Salvation Past, Present and Future: Part II: I Am Being Saved From the Power of Sin: Sanctification — Salvation’s Present Tense

As we said last week, salvation was fulfilled on the cross of Christ and is complete, but its impact is eternal. As a result, being saved doesn’t mean we immediately become perfect. God continues working in us. As Oswald Chambers put it: 

What the New Testament teaches about spiritual rebirth is that when people are struck by a sense of their need, God will begin to put the Holy Spirit into their spirit, not stopping until they have been fully remade—that is, “until Christ is formed” inside them (Galatians 4:19). The moral miracle of redemption is that God can instill in me a holiness that enables me to live a totally new life. But it isn’t until I reach the frontier of need and understand my limitations that Jesus says, “Blessed are you” (Matthew 5:11). God cannot put the holiness that was in Jesus Christ into someone who is still convinced of their own morality. I have to be consciously in need of him to receive his heredity. (My Utmost for His Highest, October 6 devotional)

12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fears and trembling, 13, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV)

¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.  Romans 6:12-14 (NIV)

The Point

The Christian life isn’t simply: Jesus saved me, so I’m finished. Jesus saved me, and now He is changing me. Sanctification is the lifelong process by which the Holy Spirit makes us increasingly like Christ. We still stumble. We still have areas where God is working on us. But we are not who we once were. I am being saved from the power of sin.

Next week, Part III: Salvation Future Tense–I will be saved from the presence of sin.

Pastor Jerry Bader