BY DR. JOHN SULLIVAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-TREASURER
FLORIDA BAPTIST CONVENTION

Doctrine of Christian life defined by salvation, justification and union with Christ

For the next two weeks, we will examine the doctrine of the Christian life, exploring how the Bible defines the Christian experience. This doctrine describes God’s work of grace in the life of a believer.

Man is a free being who many times chooses to fall into sin. The Christian life is one of salvation, justification and of union with Christ. The biblical terms describing the Christian life are weighty issues, but are significant in understanding new life found in Christ. This doctrine will be explained by defining various biblical terminologies that describe the experience of new life.

Salvation

Salvation is all that God has done in Christ for man and all that He will do. Someone once explained the threshold of salvation, saying “If a man is lost in the woods at night or out on the sea in a fog at night and then is rescued, he ought to know what it means to be saved.”

When found in the New Testament, the word “salvation” has for its semantic element the meaning of open air, freedom, liberation, unhampered, airy, spacious, to have the shackles fall off, the traps broken.

Consider Psalm 124:7-8: “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler…” The late Robert Naylor, president, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, once said: “Ask the man in Egyptian slavery what it means to be in bondage–to curse the sunlight of a new day and to die like a beast under a tyrant’s fearful lash. Salvation is escape into the open air; there are struggles, yes, but there is deliverance.”

When discussing Joshua and Caleb, Jesse Northcutt, SWBTS dean of theology, said, “It is a thousand times better to die in the desert a free man than to live to a ripe old age in the land of bondage making bricks.”

One may be delivered from bondage (sins) but must bear the responsibility to stay free. Jeremiah 7:1-11 urges us not to take the deliverance of the Lord for granted.

In the New Testament, salvation is also spoken of as liberation--the setting of a man free to live the life of salvation. Consider John 17:19 (Moffat), “For their sakes, I make the most out of my life. Because I do this, they can live abundantly;” and Hebrews 7:25, “saved to the uttermost…” God can save sinners forever!

Salvation is spoken of as an accomplished fact, a continual relationship and completed consummation. Consider: Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved” (in a state of having been saved); 2 Timothy 1:9, “Who saved us and called us with a holy calling.” (salvation has a continual relationship which abides day by day); 1 Corinthians 1:18, “But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God;” 2 Corinthians 2:15, “…the aroma of Christ;” Romans 13:11, “…salvation nearer than when we first believed;” 1 Peter 1:5, “Those who are guarded ready to be revealed for the last time” (a unique emphasis on salvation.)

We may choose disease rather than health, slavery rather than deliverance, but there is freedom in Christ.

Union with Christ

Perhaps no other thing can define union with Christ better than the word of God. Bible scholar H. R. MacIntosh noted that the phrase “in Christ” occurs 240 times in the New Testament. Consider 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

In Romans 6:4, the believer is identified with the death of Christ: “We are buried with Him in baptism unto death.” And in Ephesians 2:5, “When we were dead through our trespasses, He made us alive in Him.”

Adoption

New birth is John’s favorite term to describe the Christian life. Adoption is Paul’s favorite term. Paul felt he was not an heir but is made legally an heir by adoption. Consider: Galatians 3:23-29, “In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith – heirs according to the promise.” Paul in Galatians wrestles with the relationship of law and grace); Romans 8:15-21, “We are children, we are heirs, we are joint heirs with Him;” John 14:18, “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you;” and Romans 8:23, “Even though we have been adopted, we are waiting for a fuller adoption. We wait for adoption as sons for redemption of our bodies.”

Next week we will look at the terms redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness, new birth and sanctification.

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