By Ken Focazio
I was driving home about two years ago, and a song came on the radio called “Love Me As I AM” by King and Country. I was struck by the simple message that God loves us just the way we are– the good, the bad and the ugly. You know how you know something intellectually or at a conscience level but then something happens, and it penetrates down to the very soul? And consequently “you know” what it means that God loves us and accepts us, his perfect creation and what we as depraved sinners do with what God gives us.
Well, that got me to thinking how simple God’s provision of salvation really is, just three components: Justification, Sanctification and Glorification.
Those of you who know sales have probably heard of the KISS method, “Keep It Simple, Stupid”.
Man’s greatest talent is to overcomplicate things until they are unrecognizable. For example, the Jews and the expansion of the Law: the Ten Commandments grew to over 602 additional laws!
In the New Testament Jesus tells us the simple way of salvation (Mark 12:29-30); “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength”. The second is this: ”You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. There is no other commandment greater than these.
To the extent we keep these keep these commandments perfectly, we can anticipate the promise of salvation.
Doesn’t get much simpler than that!
However, since none of us have managed to accomplish these commands, God, out of His love, provides the solution for us.
Justification happens when we accept Christ as our savoir. This is a decision through humility. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew5:3).
I became humble enough to accept Christ as my savior when I realized He loved me, a depraved sinner. I believe that is required for someone to to know they need a savoir.
When I accepted Christ, then through double imputation, my sin was imputed to Christ and His righteousness was imputed to me. The Holy Spirit descended on me, and I was saved! Hallelujah! Done deal, I’m in, right?
Not quite! There is the part of salvation call Sanctification. To me, that is the process of BEcoming what God wants me to be. This unfortunately is where our real work as Christians lies.
So how does one become what God wants us to be? Do I get a map or list of tasks? Something that one of my favorite Christian radio hosts (Vernon McGee) said that struck me as true is that the Old Testament is about conduct (obedience to the law); the New Testament it is about Christian character. I believe this is spelled out specifically in two places, the BEattitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (specifically Matthew 5:3-11) and 1Thessalonians Chapter 5:12-28.
I believe the BEattitudes are at the absolute core of what God wants us to be. The British theologian A.W. Pink makes the distinction between the first 4 beatitudes (exercises of the Heart – Personal) to Christian character (and consequently rewards – Public/Ministry) verses 7,8,9.
The 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 passage gives us further instruction on our attitudes and behavior toward Him who sanctifies.
Finally, Glorification hopefully occurs when we die. I don’t pretend to know what that looks like other than it sounds really good!
We really only have one place where we have to focus our attention on this side of the grave– and that is Sanctification – Keep It Simple, Stupid! AM to BE.
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