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Salvation is an act that each individual must participate in to receive. It comes from God through Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross. First we must hear the word, accept it as truth, realize our lost state, and repent for our sins. Receive Jesus Christ as Lord, confess Him as our Savior. Justification comes from salvation, in that, we are now received in Him. When God sees us in Him (Jesus), He no longer sees our sins. We are just as if we had never sinned. We have been washed in the Lamb's blood. He finished all the work on the cross. Jesus suffered all the sins in His precious body. He took all of God's wrath to save us. It is then our responsibility to walk in a newness of life and live to please Him.
When I was “saved”, I didn’t know what salvation was. All I knew was that something had happened to me, and that I was different. A friend at church gave me a booklet by C. I. Scofield on Being a Christian. It had words in it like redemption, sanctification, justification, salvation, etc. I had never heard of C. I. Scofield and had no idea what those words meant. They were Greek to me, and I didn’t understand Greek. Over the last 56 years I’ve come to a better grasp of what salvation is all about, and how it has affected me. “And the Word became flesh…” Below are some words that became flesh to me, and have made salvation more understandable. I see salvation to be like an egg. The egg is one, yet made up of three parts. A yolk, a white. And a shell. It takes all three to make the egg. One salvation, three parts. 1.Justification, 2. Sanctification, 3. Glorification. Justification is the total forgiveness of all my sins/offenses, past, present, and future. It is an event that has occurred once and for all time. If I commit a traffic offense and receive a ticket, I’m justified the moment I or someone else plays the fine. That offense will never be held against me. Although the offense has been paid for and I am justified before the law, I will probably commit more offenses (if not traffic at least other kinds). Even though the offense has been wiped off the books, the offender is still on the loose. Justification is a free gift. Justification frees me from the penalty of my sins. Sanctification is taking care of the offender who is still on the loose. Sanctification is a process that occurs daily. I am justified by Jesus’ death. I am sanctified by His Life. Sanctification frees me from the power of my sin nature. You can tear up my credit cards, and pay off my debt, but you can’t tear me up. Sanctification is not a free gift, it will cost me my life. Christ is my sanctification, not my effort. “God is at work in me, both to will and to do….”. Glorification will separate me from my sin nature. As justification frees me from the penalty, and sanctification frees me from the power, glorification frees me from the presence of sin. I will be glorified “in Him”. Apart from Him, I have no glory. Self is dead, only Jesus’ life will be glorified in heaven. It took me over forty years to realize that God was not trying to save me, but to get rid of me. He is not trying to make me more kind, patient, loving… He wants to replace my nature with His. My part is to allow Him to perform this process daily. It is natural for me to live selfishly. I don’t have to work at it. I always would like the biggest piece of the pie. It is supernatural for me to “put others ahead of myself”. Only a supernatural person can live a supernatural life. “For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.” When I saw that I was dead, I realized that a dead man could not live for God.
There is no difference. Romans 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believe on Him who JUSTIFIETH the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Justified. Just as if I had never sinned. We are justified the minute we trust Jesus as our savior. We are positionally justified and sanctified, but should grow in grace into our sanctified position. We are justified by faith without works. Salvation is justification. Justification is salvation. You can not have one without having the other. We are justified by faith alone in Christ alone.
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