Page 148 - TH200 Abundant Life A4 Final

Abundant Life in the Son: A Study of Salvation

Review of Salvation

In the preceding chapters, we have compared salvation to a chain
reaction—when a sinner bows in repentance for sins and acknowledges
faith in Christ to forgive sins, all of the other events involved in the
salvation experience take place. For the purpose of systematic study we
have examined the doctrines of salvation in a certain order:

1. We learned that in the eternal counsel of God before Creation,
God willed that people through their union with Christ should be
His, and that they should become holy and blameless before Him.
This is the doctrine of election and foreordination. We saw that this
was God’s purpose for us because of His grace and love.
2. When God created people, He created them with a will that was
free to respond to His love and grace or refuse them. When Adam
disobeyed God, exercising his free will, he fell from his position of
fellowship with God.
3. We examined the results of sin: separation from God, spiritual
death, and condemnation. It was because of Adam’s sin that
salvation was necessary, for his sin affected him and his wife and
corrupted all of his descendants also.
4. We learned that God made a way for His righteousness to be
maintained through the atonement—a penalty for the sinner was
paid by a worthy and acceptable substitute. Christ became the
substitute for people’s sin: both for their sinful nature inherited
from Adam and for the sins which they commit.
5. God’s gracious salvation, therefore, fully meets the spiritual needs
of people: it covers their sins, it turns away God’s anger against
their sin, it reconciles them to God, it satisfies the righteousness
of God, it pays the penalty for sin, and it removes condemnation
from the repentant sinner.

These highlights from Chapters 1 and 5 give us the background of
salvation and reveal God’s will in salvation.

The Definition of Glorification

As we have considered the chain of salvation link by link, we have
been aware that what God has begun must surely be carried forward to

::: 140 :::