Part Five: "Understanding Our Great Salvation Causes Us to Worship God and have Joy!" (1

The last aspect of the Christ follower's great salvation is found in the words, "Who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:5). The words of this verse should cause the Christ follower to worship God and rejoice even in the midst of suffering! Peter says, "for a salvation ready to be revealed." What does he mean? I thought we were already saved! As a Christ follower, you are saved! The Bible teaches about salvation in at least three ways (past, present, and future). When we believed in Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were saved. This aspect of our great salvation is called justification. It means God declared us righteous by canceling our sin debt and removing the condemnation and the penalty of that condemnation! This aspect of our salvation is past tense. Paul says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8). Notice the phrase, "have been saved" speaks of salvation in the past tense! The next aspect is that Christ followers are being saved! This aspect of our great salvation is called sanctification. Daily, we're being saved from sin as we become more like Jesus Christ. The Bible presents this aspect of our salvation as being a progressive process that continues until we reach our destination that Jesus called, "the Father's house" in heaven! Paul speaks of this progressive process with these words, "So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). Notice the phrase, "work out your salvation" speaks of salvation as something that's a progressive process, the process of "working out!" Finally, there's a future aspect to our great salvation. It's often called glorification. This takes place when we see Christ! We will have our glorified, new and vastly improved resurrected bodies! This means the removal of our sin nature! Praise God forevermore!! We will be totally and completely saved from sin and its temptation. This is what John says with these words, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2). This is yet future! This is something we should get excited about! Because of our great salvation, there's coming a day when we'll be like our Lord! Our great salvation guarantees it! We're protected by God's power until this salvation is ready to be revealed! Be encouraged!