Understanding the Process of Salvation in Romans (Part 10 - Salvation doesn’t stop at the cross, but includes resurrection too)
Romans 6 to 8 is a keynote part of our Christian doctrine. Paul has fully transitioned from lessons in justification through Romans 1 to 5 and is now focused on sanctification. Justification is shelved and is settled. Those who believe in Jesus Christ: in his cross work through the gospel of grace, are saved from God's wrath and hell. Their heavenward salvation is final and sure, because it is not based on the life of the believer, but on the righteousness of Christ and God's heavenly decree to save those who believe in His Son. This is positional salvation because it is not up to the believer. It is God's decree and Christ's work. The believer is placed in Christ and sealed unto the day of salvation, Eph.1:13.
What we are going to get into now is in contrast to positional salvation. Sanctification is functional salvation because the believer has a responsibility, or as Paul puts it, a reasonable service to perform, Rom.12:1. Recall this verse,
Rom.3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Justification is a FREE gift of God. On the other hand, sanctification is a work that Paul says we are to work out, Php.2:12, and it's something that we are to obtain, 2Th 2:13-14; 2Tim.2:10. This costs effort. Unlike justification, this is not freely given. Where justification concerns us in Christ, conversely, sanctification is where Christ must increase in us and where we are to die daily so that He might be enlarged in our lives.
Sadly, many believers stop at justification. They think that being justified and saved from hell means they have made it. The truth is that they have made it, but it it’s not the end of the greater salvation that God offers. Justification is only the first step. There is much more on offer. Consider that the gospel is not only about the death of Christ on the cross. Rather, the whole gospel is his death, his burial, and also his resurrection! This is what we are to experience too. By the gospel we are justified through HIS death, but then WE are to also die, be buried, and be resurrected. Romans 6 and 7 deal with OUR death and burial, and then Roman 8 deals with OUR walk in newness of ‘resurrected’ life. We cannot be ‘resurrected’ to walk in newness of life until we are dead and buried.
Justification dealt with our sins (past, present, and future), which are the fruit of the root! But now that our sins are nailed to the cross in positional salvation, we are now to press on and die to ‘sin’ in our flesh, which is the root itself. Sin is a law in the flesh. The only way to be freed of this law is through death. Then, when we are resurrected again by the power of the written word of God, we can operate under a new law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,
Rom_8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 7:4-6 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. (5) For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. (6) But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
In the next post we will get into Paul’s advice on how to step into this next part of salvation regarding sanctification, Rom.6:1-13.
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