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| Picture of Sungai Dua Church and guests at the Bible Conference in Dec 2007. front row: Tien Ern, Jo-Ezer, Ai Winn, Sue Ann, Winnie, Sue Lian, Rachel |
This is the only place I have come across where the five distinct aspects of salvation are actually set out so clearly in a Church's Article of Faith! Quite incredible!
May the Lord of heaven open the eyes of many of His children to behold the truth of their glorious salvation by God's free and sovereign grace.
Below is Section 6 of the Article of Faith found here:
http://letgodbetrue.com/introduction/faq/articles-of-faith.htm#6
Salvation
We believe that the Scripture shows five distinct divisions, aspects or phases of the work of God in the salvation of His people, and they are as follows:
Eternal - Election
We believe that before the world was created, God elected (Ephesians 1:4) a certain and invariable number of people (Romans 8:29-30), out of Adam's fallen race (Romans 9:21), to be delivered from the condemnation which they justly deserved (Romans 6:23) and to be adopted as His own children (Ephesians 2:1-3), this choice not based on any conceivable or foreseen compliance of those chosen (Psalm 14:2-3; Romans 3:9-19), but simply upon the free grace and sovereign will of God (Ephesians 1:3-11).
We believe that in pursuance of this design, God the Father did determine and make a covenant with the Word and the Holy Spirit on behalf of those persons alone, wherein all the duties and necessary actions were appointed to the Godhead to perform, and all the spiritual blessings provided for the elect.
We believe that this salvation, being decreed by Him who calls those things which are not as though they were (Romans 4:17), was considered as accomplished and finished before the world began.
We believe the eternal redemption and salvation which Christ has obtained by the shedding of His blood is special and particular; it was intentionally designed exclusively for the elect of God (Romans 8:33), the sheep of Christ (John 10:26-29), and they only share the benefits and blessings of it, and that infallibly (Romans 8:31-39), the rest of fallen mankind left in the state of condemnation it received from Adam's transgression in the garden of Eden (Romans 5:12; 9:21-22).
Legal - Justification
We believe the legal sentence of death against the elect was executed upon the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary, His pure and sinless life being the perfect and only substitute for the filthy rags of their righteousness, and His holy blood being the only acceptable propitiation for their sins (Romans 3:24-26; 2 Corinthian 5:21).We believe that the Father received this offering of the Lamb of God (Hebrews 10:10, 14), and that He accordingly justifies the elect, seeing in them not their sins, but the spotless righteousness of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, their sins being forgotten and covered by His precious blood.
Vital - Regeneration, the New Birth
We believe that those elected by God and justified by Christ's blood are, in the course of this life, given a new and sinless nature, created in true holiness, and capable of receiving and acting upon the spiritual realities taught in the Scriptures.We believe that the same powerful Spirit that moved upon the face of the deep in the creation of the world moves on the nature of the elect to create spiritual life where there was death and corruption, that Spirit following the spoken direction of the Son of God to give life to His child, His sheep, and that the soul of the child of God is totally passive in this process, just as a natural child is passive in his conception, gestation and birth.
Practical - Conversion
We believe that God provides the means for His elect, regenerate children to know Him and have fellowship with Him during this life through the preaching of and obedience to the Scripture, and that conversion is, accordingly, an educational process whereby the born again child of God learns of his helpless condition in Adam, of the wonderful salvation that His heavenly Father has provided through the life giving blood of Jesus Christ, and what His God requires of him to enjoy fellowship with Him in his pilgrimage of life.We believe that God grants to the elect the opportunity to repent and acknowledge the truth, but that, repentance, having been granted, it is their responsibility to exercise their God given faith (Philippians 2:12) and repentance to obtain the blessings that He offers in this life, and that this aspect of salvation, if they harden their hearts, can be lost and replaced by God's severe chastisement.
We believe that, in general, those whom God has chosen to be His own will believe and obey the gospel call when they hear it, though we acknowledge that God, as the Sovereign Lord of the universe, can leave some individuals in ignorance of the glorious salvation that Christ secured for them, these being a small exception.
Final - Glorification
We believe that all of those chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and regenerated by the Spirit, shall be glorified together with Christ when He returns to judge the quick and the dead, their mortal forms clothed with immortality, and their sin wracked bodies resurrected or changed to be like the sinless body that our Lord Jesus Christ now inhabits.We believe that God will preserve His elect unto this glorious day, and that Jesus Christ shall present them unto the Father pure and spotless, clothed in His own righteousness, regardless of their works of righteousness or lack thereof.
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Rightly dividing the doctrine of salvation into these distinct phases is absolutely necessary to an adequate and faithful understanding of the Holy Scriptures concerning salvation.
Here are two charts that clearly illustrate these distinct divisions, aspects or phases of the work of God in the salvation of His people. Download and print them, and study them!
Chart #1: Definitions. Salvation Divided By the
Scriptures. (2 Timothy 2:15). Eternal Phase. Legal Phase.
Vital Phase. Practical Phase. Final Phase .
Chart #2: Components. Salvation Divided By the Scriptures
http://www.letgodbetrue.com/questions/paul-salvation.php
