Sin and the Stages of Salvation
If you aren’t a Christian, a born again believer, I have some bad news – you are sinner.
Yes I know, “Who am I to judge?”. Please don’t be mad at the messenger; it’s not my idea or plan. This I know for the Bible tells me so…and so does your conscience, if it’s not seared and hell bent. Yet even that can change by God’s restorative power. The same awesome power that brought Jesus back from dead to alive, while there is still time.
To be or not to be?
Sinful and sinless?
Saved or lost?
Three questions. The solution is outside of each of us – for you are the problem and so am I.
(Bad news) Non-Christians will always be sin laden. (Partially bad news) Christians will never be totally sinless, at least as we are alive in our flesh, (Partially good news) but we should sin less as the Spirit empowers, as we are strengthened in our sanctification process. (Good news) Jesus is the way and He loves you, again this I know for the Bible tells me so, this is salvation, the good news of the Gospel.
Yeah, salvation and sanctification are quite the religious words. Salvation is what Christians call being saved. It is the act of accepting Jesus’s Christ as Lord of one’s life.
Sanctification is the process between redemption and glorification. Oh, I used two other religious words: ‘redemption’ and ‘glorification’. Redemption is when a soul, which every person has and is the most precious of all things in all the universe, is redeemed! Glorification is when we go to heaven and are received by Christ, then we are purified and truly sinless (Great good news).
(Bad news) If you haven’t figured it out, our relationship with God has been severed. The world is wacked. No surprise there. (Partially bad news) The world is a beautiful mess and quite the conundrum. It wasn’t actually your fault nor mine but since we each inherited a sinful heart, we each are responsible for our own actions because God endowed us with free will.
We should always remember that God does not like sin, actually He hates it, as should we. Yes, He loves you as should we love God and others created in His image (that includes yourself). This saying is a classic:
“Love the sinner, hate the sin. It is tried and true, for me and you.”
There are three stages of salvation; salvation from our sin which has separated us from God. When we read of salvation in the Bible, think which stage of salvation is the Spirit referring to. Sometimes it’s one of three and sometimes it’s all three.
Note: The Bible is a wonderful book for so many reasons. One that I would like us to consider is that it’s vast and mysterious yet it is also so simple and accessible for those guided by the Spirit. Without the Spirit, it’s merely a book of history. With the Spirit it is incredible and meaningful to no end.
Since salvation is the essence of our eternal existence I would like to dig deeper and how it works and how we should deal with sin.
The three distinct stages of SALVATION:
1. REDEMPTION
Romans 3:23-26
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Ephesians 1:7-13
(Christ) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and understanding, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His pleasure, which He purposed in Him 10 for the administration of the fullness of the times, to bring together all things in Christ—the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth— 11in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of the One working all things according to the counsel of His will 12 for us, the ones having first trusted in Christ, to be to the praise of His glory, 13in whom you also, having heard the word of truth, the gospel your of salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.
Prior to the first stage of salvation, which is when we receive the Gospel message, we believe and receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have no chance against sin as the law clearly demonstrates. We are stuck in our own muck, like standing in a bucket trying to lift it up. When we are ‘born again’ we become positionally saved from our sins because Christ’s pure life is imputed unto us. God sees us through the prism of His Son.
We had no part in work and power redemption because it is NOT of our works but rather of God’s grace. We have but one responsibility for this essential step: to receive. All we have to do is accept God’s gift, to believe upon Jesus and thus renounce our past (which is another serious religious word: repentance).
2. SANCTIFICATION
Romans 6:22
But now, having been set free from sin, and having become slaves to God,
you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end is eternal life.
Colossians 3:24
3 Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, for the Lord and not for men, because you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward.
It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Philippians 2:12b
continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
This is the middle ground where our involvement is paramount. This is the process of becoming mature in our faith, growing from milk drinker to a meat eater. This is when we should sin less not by our own brute strength but because we align our will with God’s will. That we abide in Jesus’s wonderfulness. If we are going to have a successful salvation process we need to practice the Spiritual Disciplines which include:
- Prayer (A.C.T.S.)
- Scripture regular reading & memorization
- Fasting from things of the world
- Worship (Personal and Corporate)
- Service / ministry unto God and others
Psalms 32:8-9
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
As we are involved, God has got us. We are sealed. Nothing can snatch us away so long as we keep God as the apple of our eye. Some theologians believe ‘once saved, always saved’ and that is true yet in a sense. Yet there are plenty of other passages that use this big two letter word: IF. I believe God once that we give our hearts to God, we are truly and always saved so long as we don’t intentionally reject and ignore our salvation.
Once we are saved, the Holy Spirit fills us with His fruit Read more. The closer we connect with God, the more fruit filled we are. The further we move from God, the less fruitfulness.
3. GLORIFICATION
When we see God for who and all that He is, we will be glorified. We must be purified prior or we would fry, literally evaporate due our sin. Thankfully, prior to entering His presence, by Christ’s blood, we are delivered from our sinful nature and created anew, fully restored to our original intended state prior to the fall. Our relationship is fully restored once and for all.
When Jesus returns, He will bring the 3rd stage of salvation for those who aren’t already with Him and thus purified in glorification, the caterpillar has its beautiful sinless wings, once and for all.
Hebrews 9:25
25 Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
27Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.
Note: That Jesus brings salvation to those who eagerly await Him, implying that if we are NOT eager, if we are lax, uninterested, slothfully lazy, disinterested we could be in a world of hurt. This is a stern warning.
1 Corinthians 2:6b
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.
SIN – ITS POWER AND OUR RESPONSE
When and where it comes to sin, we have a duty to fear, flee, fight, & forgo it.
Sin defined: Any thought, word, desire, action, or omission of action, contrary to the law of God, or defective when compared with it. (ATS Bible Dictionary)
Transgression of the law of God; disobedience of the divine command; any violation of God’s will, either in purpose or conduct; moral deficiency in the character; iniquity; as, sins of omission and sins of commission. (Webster’s Dictionary).
The origin of sin is a mystery, and must forever remain such to us. It is plain that for some reason God has permitted sin to enter this world, and that is all we know. His permitting it, however, in no way makes God the author of sin. (Easton’s Bible Dictionary)
FLEE SIN
When we are tempted, we are to flee sin. To not go there. Proverbs is full of these admonitions.
1 Corinthians 6
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin, whatever if a man might do, is outside the body, but the one sinning sexually sins against the own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have from God? And you are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.
IMPUTATION / SANCTIFICATION
The goal is to not sin in our sanctification but regardless we are positionaly sinless by Christ’s imputation.
1 Peter 2
(Isaiah 53:1–8)
21For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His footsteps:
22“He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in His mouth.”g
23When they heaped abuse on Him,
He did not retaliate;
when He suffered, He made no threats,
but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.
24He Himself bore our sins
in His body on the tree,
so that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness.
“By His stripes you are healed.”
I can’t help but notice the ‘might’ in the previous passage. This indicated to me that we have an obligation in our sanctification process to do our little part and God will do His big part, the heavy lifting.
CONFESS
We are responsible to be aware and confess our sins, as we aware
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
AVOID
We are obliged NOT to commit deliberate sin by avoiding it from a Holy fear.
Hebrews 10
19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Placed by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body,e 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23Let us hold resolutely to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. 25Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
26If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,”f and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”g 31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32Remember the early days that you were in the light.h In those days, you endured a great conflict in the face of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to ridicule and persecution; at other times you were partners with those who were so treated. 34You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession.
35So do not throw away your confidence; it holds a great reward. 36 You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. 37For, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay.
38But My righteous one will live by faith;iand if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.” 39But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
1 John 3
1Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 2Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears,a we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.b
4Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness.c5But you know that Christ appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6No one who remains in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has seen Him or known Him.
7Little children,d let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous.e 8The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.
9Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.10By this the children of God are distinguished from the children of the devil: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
DO NOT IGNORE OR HIDE BUT DWELL AND ABIDE
Hebrews 4:14-16
Jesus the Great High Priest
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
ASSIST
There are clearly evident and heinous sins that are obvious as listed in Romans 1 and elsewhere. There are also more subtle sins that may be for me and not thee, or vice versa for if we do something against our conscious, its a sin.
1 Corinthians 8
9But be careful, lest somehow this right of yours becomes an occasion of stumbling to those being weak. 10For if anyone sees you, having knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, being weak, be built up so as to eat the things sacrificed to idols? 11For the one being weak is destroyed through your knowledge—the brother for whom Christ died. 12And thus sinning against the brothers and wounding their being weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
13Therefore, if food snares my brother, never shall not I eat meat to the age, so that I might not snare my brother.
REPENT
1 John 2:1
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
PARADOXICAL VICTORY
Paul encourages us that we no longer have to be controlled by sin, that we have the ability to be victorious over sin, not 100% but significantly better and better. The battle remains but the great General is with us and empowers us if we strive and abide.
Romans 6
1What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?3Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.
5For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. 6We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. 7For anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.10The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. 11So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. 13Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
The Wages of Sin
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not! 16Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?17But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
20For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. 21What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This concludes my essay on Sin and the Stages of Salvation. I hope you found some value in it and all genuine comments and questions are welcome for we are in this together for God’s glory. – Kirk A Booher
