God freely offers us eternal life in Christ Jesus. However, understanding the process by which that life becomes available to us is sometimes difficult. However, God paints various pictures in the Bible to help us grasp the concept. Each one with its unique emphasis.
Salvation is the first, which means deliverance. In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself as the one who saves His people. The New Testament describes it as “the way” or the road that leads through life to eternal fellowship with God in heaven. This road of salvation is a walk to the very end. We can describe salvation as one way with two sides and three stages.
The one way of salvation. Christ is the way to the Father. Deliverance is provided for us by God’s grace, which He gives us freely in Christ Jesus, based on His death, resurrection, and continued intercession for believers.
The two sides of salvation. Salvation is a gift of God’s grace received through faith in Jesus Christ and received by us through the response of faith.
The three stages of salvation are the past, present, and future stages. The past stage of deliverance includes the personal experience by which we as believers receive forgiveness of sins as a gift and past from spiritual death to spiritual life, from the power of sin to the power of God, from Satan’s dominion to God’s dominion. It brings us into a new personal relationship with God and rescues us from the penalty of sin.
The present stage of salvation saves us from the bondage, power, and dominion of sin and brings us into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The privilege of a communicative relationship with God as our Father and Jesus as Lord and Savior. The call to count ourselves dead to sin and to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word. The invitation to be filled with the Holy Spirit and the command to keep being filled. The demand to separate ourselves from sin and the present corrupt generation, and the call to contend for the advance of God’s kingdom against Satan and his demonic host.
The future stage of salvation includes our deliverance from God’s coming anger. Our sharing in Christ’s glory and receiving a resurrected or transformed body, and our receiving rewards as faithful overcomers. This future salvation is the goal to which all Christians strive. All warnings discipline and punishment have as their purpose that believers should not forfeit their future salvation.
Redemption is the second, which means ransom by payment of a price. The expression denotes how salvation is procured, namely, by the fee of a ransom. The New Testament represents humans as alienated from God under the dominion of satanic powers, servants to sin, and the need for deliverance from sin’s guilt, punishment, and influence. The state of sin is redeemed through the Son of God by the Father. The price paid to free us from sin is Jesus Christ secured the ransom by shedding His blood and giving His life.
What is the resultant state of the redeemed? Believers recovered by Christ are now free from the law and free from sin’s captivity and Satan’s dominion. The freedom in Christ results in righteousness. Loving obedience to Christ Jesus expressed practically in responsible love. Paradoxically, independence comes through loving obedience identical to glory comes through suffering. The New Testament teaching of redemption foreshadows by redemption in the Old Testament. The admirable Old Testament event was the exodus from Egypt.
Justification is the final one of the three which means to be acquitted. Declared “not guilty” and “announced righteous in God’s sight” as long as we live sinlessly. In this manner, it is directly related to God’s forgiveness in Christ of the guilty and the repentant sinner. Justification is the judicial aspect of the conversion experience in which the believer views from God’s perspective. God the Father imputes or credits the righteousness of Christ to the believer. He sees them wrapped in the perfect righteousness of Christ. This gesture allows God to accept the souls of humanity into His heaven: since no one can ever be good enough to merit heaven.
The term justification is similar to the analogy of a courtroom. Jesus Christ is our advocate or attorney who can present us before the Father as credited with His righteousness. Justification is only one dimension of the conversion experience. At the moment of change, several other things are taking place. Regeneration is the initiation of new life in Christ, literally being “born again” because Christ comes to live in the believer. The Holy Spirit abides with the believer and emerges them to live victoriously. God gives the “witness of the Spirit” to believers that solidifies that they belong to the family of God. Many blessings come to the believer in the instant of conversion. Justification is that aspect that features our standing before a holy God. Imputed righteousness is alongside the imparted sanctification that begins with regeneration. Justification is a gift from God. No one can put themselves right before God by keeping the law or performing good works. In Romans chapter three, verse twenty-three explains all humans have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Justification is grounded in the finished work of Christ. It is through the redemption that is in Jesus. No one has justified apart from the redemption of Christ. Being justified comes by His grace and is appropriated by the faith of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Being cogent by God is related to the forgiveness of our sins. Sinners are declared guilty by the law and condemned to eternal death, but in Christ, by faith, we are forgiven because of His atoning death and resurrection and given eternal life.