The Christian's call is to believe right doctrine, true doctrine, the doctrine of the Scripture. But it is not just a matter of stating right doctrine, though that is so important. Neither is it merely to be that which can be explained by natural talent, or character, or energy. The Christian is not called to present merely another message in the same way as all the other messages are presented. We must understand that it is not only important what we do, but how we do it. In the first chapter of the book of Acts, between Christ's resurrection and ascension, he gives a command not just to preach the gospel, but to wait for the Holy Spirit and then to preach the gospel. Preaching the gospel without the Holy Spirit is to miss the entire point of the command of Jesus Christ for our era. In the area of "Christian activities" or "Christian service," how we are doing it is at least as important as what we are doing. Whatever is not an exhibition that God exists, misses the whole purpose of the Christian's life now on this earth. According to the Bible, we are to be living a supernatural life now, in this present existence, in a way we shall never be able to do again through all eternity. We are called upon to live a supernatural life now, by faith. Eternity will be wonderful, but there is one thing heaven will not contain, and that is the call, the possibility, and the privilege of living a supernatural life here and now by faith, before we see Jesus face to face.
This is the demonstration that God intends in the world until Christ returns, and it is the Christian who is to be the demonstration. Christians are called upon to be a demonstration at our point of history that the supernatural, the normally unseen world, does exist; and, beyond that, that God exists. They are to do this individually and corporately, each generation of Christians to their own generation. So we are to be the demonstration to the second half of the twentieth century. Obviously we cannot be a demonstration to the past; and it can only be partially through our writings and our works that we leave a demonstration to the future, though there should be an accumulative demonstration, rolling up like a snowball through the centuries. But primarily every Christian is to be a demonstration at his own point of history and to his own generation.
Christians are to demonstrate God's character, which is a moral demonstration, but it is not only to be a demonstration of moral principles; it is a demonstration of his being, his existence. What a calling, and how overwhelming! Surely anyone who has been at all honest, and not just romantic or idealistic in a bad sense, must understand that any such demonstrations would be totally meaningless by his own effort, in his own strength. So again the biblical teaching of Christ as Bridegroom, bringing forth his fruit through us-the power of the crucified and risen Christ and the agency of the Holy Spirit by faith-is seen to be no isolated teaching. It should not take us by surprise. It fits into the unity of the Bible's teaching about the calling of the Christian in this present world. This is the second of the biblical unities that we have considered. The first was the unity of the Bible's teaching in regard to the supernatural nature of the universe.
A third unity of the Bible's teaching is the unity of what salvation is. When I truly accept Christ as my Savior, the Bible says God declares me justified at once. God, as the judge, judicially declares the guilt gone, upon the basis of the substitutionary work of Christ. It is not that God overlooks the sin. He is holy, and because he is holy, all sin results in true guilt. But when I accept Christ as my Savior, my sin has been punished, in Christ: in history, space, and time, upon the cross. And God declares me justified as far as guilt is concerned. It is as though I had never sinned. On the cross Jesus took all of our punishment, which means there is no punishment left for us to bear, either in this life, or hereafter. Because Christ is divine his death had infinite value` value enough, in substitutionary fashion, to cover all of the individual sin, and all the guilt of all those who will ever come to him.
Justification must be understood to be absolutely irrevocable, for Christ took the punishment of all our sin, not just our sin up to the moment when we accepted Christ as our Savior. Nothing is left to be charged to our account. Seeing it this way, which is the biblical way to see it, there are no degrees of justification. One cannot be more or less justified. In this sense one cannot be more or less Christian. One is a Christian, or not a Christian, on this basis. Just as one is born or not born, married in God's sight or not married, so one has accepted Christ as Savior, and thus is declared justified by God, or not. There is no half way, no degrees. Guilt is totally gone from the Christian, and gone forever. Therefore, for the Christian, justification is past.
But we must not make a mistake here. Salvation, as the word is used in Scripture, is wider than justification. There is a past, a future, and just as really, a present. The infinite work of Christ upon the cross brings to the Christian more than justification. In the future, there is glorification. When Christ returns, there will be the resurrection of the body, and eternity.
But there is also a present aspect of salvation. Sanctification is our present relationship to our Lord, the present tense.
In sanctification there are degrees. We have said that there are no degrees of justification, because the guilt is absolutely gone. But in the question of our relationship to our Lord in the present time, there are degrees. There are degrees between different Christians, and we must also acknowledge degrees in our personal lives at different times.
The Christian life is not an unbroken, inclined plane. Sometimes it is up, and sometimes-we must all acknowledge if we are not deluding ourselves-it is down. While it is not possible to be more or less justified it is possible to be more or less sanctified. Justification deals with the guilt of sin: sanctification deals with the power of sin in the Christian's life, and there are degrees in this.
Salvation is not just justification and then a blank until death; God never meant it to be so. Salvation is a unity, a flowing stream, from justification through sanctification to glorification. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Romans 8:28-30). It is made plain, in the tenses that are used, that salvation is to be seen as an unbroken stream.
There are other examples of the same truth: "Therefore being justified by faith," (in the past) "we have peace" (in the present) "with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have" (in the present) "access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope does not disappoint us; because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which was given unto us" (Romans 5:1-5). Or we may take the keynote verses of the first half of the book of Romans:
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:16, 17). Now the word "salvation" here is not justification. The word "salvation" encompasses the whole: justification, sanctification, glorification. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith." This is not just the "once for all" faith at justification, but faith from faith to faith. "As it is written, The just shall live by faith"-not just be justified by faith: the just shall live by faith.
In certain ways, sanctification is the most important consideration for the Christian now, because that is the point where we are. It is the present portion of salvation, and in this sense it is the most important consideration of the Christian now. Justification is once for all; sanctification is continuous, from our accep
tance of Christ right up to our death. This study of the Christian life and "true spirituality" falls within the present portion of our salvation. That is, this whole study is in reality a study of the biblical teaching of sanctification.
Salvation is a unity. When I accepted Christ as my Savior, when my guilt was gone, I returned to the place for which I was originally made. Man has a purpose. In this second half of the twentieth century, one is constantly confronted with the question. What is the purpose of man-if man has any purpose?" And to that question the twentieth century returns a great silence. But the Bible says that man has the purpose of loving God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind. And this "loving" is not meant to be vague or "religious," in the modern sense, but a genuine communication with God: the finite person, thinking and acting and feeling, being in relationship with the infinite-not a bare infinite, but an infinite who is a personal God, and therefore communication is possible. This is the purpose of man, though lost through the fall. And when I accept Christ as my Savior, the guilt that has separated me from God, and from the fulfillment of my purpose, is removed. I then stand in the place in which man was made to stand at his creation. Not just in some far-off day, in the millennial reign of Christ, nor in eternity, but now I am returned to the place for which I was made at the beginning. I am immediately in a new and living relationship with each of the three persons of the Trinity. First, God the Father becomes my father. Theologically, this is spoken of as adoption. 'But as many as received him, to them gave he power" (or the right) "to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). When I receive Christ, on the basis of his finished work I become a child of God. Christ, the second person of the Trinity, is uniquely the eternal Son of God. But the Bible declares, and it should be a joy to us, that when I have accepted Christ as my Savior, I immediately come into a new relationship with the Father, and I become his son, in the sense of the creature in the proper place for which he was made in the first place.
Second, when I accept Christ as my Savior, I immediately come into a new relationship with God the Son. In theology this is spoken of as our mystical union with Christ. In the book of Ephesians we are told over and over again that when we accept Christ as our Savior we are "in" Christ. In Romans 7:4, we are told that Christ is our bridegroom and we are the bride. In John 15 we are told that Christ is the vine and we are the branches. In all these relationships there is pictured or related the mystical union of Christ and the believer. And who is this Christ, with whom we enter into a relationship? Not the baby Jesus, nor Christ when he was on earth, nor Christ as he hung on the cross, but the risen, ascended, and glorified Christ. Finally, the Bible says we also enter into a new relationship with the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. When we are justified, we are also and immediately indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In John 14:16, 17 Christ is making a promise just prior to his death, which was fulfilled at Pentecost after his resurrection and ascension: "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." There was a then present relationship, but there would also be a future one. John explains this when he says that the Holy Spirit was not yet given, for Christ was not yet glorified (John 7:39). In the book of Romans, it is again made very plain that now if we have accepted Christ as our Savior, we are in this new relationship with the Holy Spirit, and anyone who is not in a relationship with the Holy Spirit is not a Christian. "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (8:9). Paul, writing to all the Christians at Corinth, asks, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). This was written down through the ages to every man who has accepted Christ as Savior. When I am justified, I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and have entered into this new relationship with the third person of the Trinity.
Futhermore, we read this promise of Christ: "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you" (John 14:16-18). We are not "orphaned"; Christ comes to us, through the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And, in verse 23, connected with this: "And we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." In this context the thrust is that the Holy Spirit indwelling the individual Christian is not only the agent of Christ, but he is also the agent of the Father. Consequently, when I accept Christ as my Savior, my guilt is gone, I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and I am in communication with the Father and the Son, as well as the Holy Spirit-the entire Trinity. Thus now, in the present life, if I am justified, I am in a personal relationship with each of the members of the Trinity. God the Father is my Father; I am in union with the Son; and I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This is not just meant to be doctrinal; it is what I have now.
Let me stress it again: salvation is all one piece. All salvation, past, present, and future, has one base. That base is not our faith. If we are confused here, we are confused completely. A man can never be justified on the basis of his own faith. Through all of salvation the only base is the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross in history. Faith is the empty hand, the instrument by which we accept God's free gift. Faith is simply believing God. It is not a leap in the dark. It is ceasing to call God a liar, and believing him. Justification is only on the basis of the finished work of Christ. Faith is the instrument by which we accept that finished work. This is the how, but this "how" extends through all salvation.
Consider, for example, assurance. The Bible makes it plain that the man who is a Christian has a right to know that he is saved: it is one of the good gifts of God, to know truly that he is a Christian. This refers not only to the initial fact, after one has accepted Christ as Savior, but also applies in those great and crushing moments in our lives when the waves get so high that it seems, psychologically or spiritually, that we can never find our footing again. At such a moment a Christian can have assurance. His salvation rests on the finished work of Christ whether he accepts the peace he should have, or not; and he can have assurance to the extent to which he believes the promises of God at that moment.
It is exactly the same with sanctification. The basis is the finished work of Christ; the instrument to lay hold of that which God means us to have at this moment is faith. As a child of God, sanctification from the time of justification on in the present life, is moment by moment. Justification is once for all, at that moment when, by God's grace, I accept Christ as my Savior; but sanctification is moment by moment, a moment-by-moment life of faith. At this particular place the existentialist is right when he points out the moment-by-moment character of man's life.
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:3, 4). Is that true? In ourselves, do we find that his commandments are not grievous? I would say that for many years I found them grievous. For many years as a pastor, preaching the gospel, I never preached on this verse for the simple reason that I did not understand it. I found the commandments of God grievous; I could hardly bear them. And then one day, as I was wrestling with this topic, I saw that all one had to do was to look at the immediate context: "And this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. Because whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world." Fortunately it does not stop there, or it would not tell us the "how." "And this is the victory that overcometh the world, our faith." On the basis of the finished work of Christ, a moment-by-moment life of faith is "the victory." Not our victory, but Christ's victory, purchased for us on Calvary'
s cross, laid hold of moment by moment in faith.
Sanctification and assurance are comparable. A man may be saved and not know he is saved because he does not raise the empty hands of faith at this particular moment and believe God's promises. And a man may lack in sanctification all that God means him to have in the present life because even though Christ has purchased it for him upon the cross he fails to believe God at this place and raise the empty hands of faith moment by moment. Now let me repeat, to be absolutely clear about it, the basis is not your faith; it is the finished work of Christ. Faith is the instrument to receive this thing from God that Christ has purchased for us.
So this is the third unity, the unity of what salvation is: a single piece, and yet a flowing stream. I became a Christian once for all upon the basis of the finished work of Christ through faith; that is justification. The Christian life, sanctification, operates on the same basis, but moment by moment. There is the same base (Christ's work) and the same instrument (faith); the only difference is that one is once for all and the other is moment by moment. The whole unity of biblical teaching stands solid at this place. If we try to live the Christian life in our own strength we will have sorrow, but if we live in this way, we will not only serve the Lord, but in place of sorrow, he will be our song. That is the difference. The "how" of the Christian life is the power of the crucified and risen Lord, through the agency of the indwelling Holy Spirit, by faith moment by moment.
"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13). This is our calling, through the agency of the Holy Spirit. We are not called to serve God just any way but to know joy and peace in believing.
The Fruitful Bride 7