September 24, 2019

You are glorified – part 1

This is the 13th in a series of excerpts from the new MBC resource, “What Every Christian Should Know About Salvation,” available at mobaptist.org/apologetics

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Glorification is the final stage in God’s work of salvation. It is the crowning achievement of sanctification, in which Christians are fully conformed to the image of Christ. It is the perfection of the body, rejoined with soul and spirit in resurrection, as well as the restoration of the universe to its original state.

Put another way, glorification is the means by which God fully reverses the effects of the Fall, purging creation of sin and its stain. It involves the return of Jesus, the future resurrection and judgment of all people, and the creation of new heavens and a new earth.

For the most part, when Christians talk about glorification, we are referring to our future resurrection, at which time we receive incorruptible bodies similar to the body Christ had when He rose from the dead.

In this respect, Wayne Grudem provides an excellent summary: “Glorification is the final step in the application of redemption. It will happen when Christ returns and raises from the dead the bodies of all believers for all time who have died, and reunites them with their souls, and changes the bodies of all believers who remain alive, thereby giving all believers at the same time perfect resurrection bodies like his own.”
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September 10, 2019

You are sealed

This is the 12th in a series of excerpts from the new MBC resource, “What Every Christian Should Know About Salvation,” available at mobaptist.org/apologetics.

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When believing sinners entrust their lives to Christ, the Father seals them with the Holy Spirit, placing His divine mark of ownership on them, thus ensuring His everlasting presence and their eternal security.

As the Father’s imprint on the surrendered heart, the Spirit reminds followers of Jesus they are secure as coheirs with Christ; authentic citizens of the kingdom of God; in the permanent grasp of the Father; and recipients of God’s divine pledge to finish the work He began in them.

In three New Testament passages, the apostle Paul describes the role of the Holy Spirit in sealing Christians:

2 Cor. 1:22 – “He [God] has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.”

Eph. 1:13-14 – “In him [Christ] you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.”

Eph. 4:30 – “And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.”
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September 3, 2019

The inconvenient truth of hell

The doctrine of hell is disturbing. The very idea of suffering and separation beyond the grave elicits a wide range of responses, from anguish to anger, and from despair to denial.

The possibility of departed loved ones languishing in outer darkness only adds to the grief of those laying flowers on their graves.

Some atheists cite hell as a reason to deny the existence of a loving God.

What’s more, Anglican cleric John Stott, who wrote the influential book Basic Christianity, found the idea of eternal suffering in hell so repugnant that he rejected it in favor of annihilationism.

According to a 2014 survey by LifeWay Research, fewer Mainline Protestants believe in hell than do Americans in general (55 percent vs. 61 percent, respectively).

And for many evangelicals, hell remains an inconvenient truth.
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August 27, 2019

You are adopted

This is the 11th in a series of excerpts from the new MBC resource, “What Every Christian Should Know About Salvation,” available at mobaptist.org/apologetics.

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Adoption is an act of God making born-again believers members of His family. The Greek word for adoption stems from two words: huios, meaning “son,” and thesis, meaning “a placing.” Thus, the word huiothesia conveys the idea of “placement into sonship.” This biblical term is meant to include both males and females.

From a first-century legal perspective, adoption meant taking a person from another family and making him or her legally a child in a new family. The son’s or daughter’s former relationships were severed, and the adoptee became a member of the new family under the father’s authority.

The New Testament concept of adoption is more sublime since it brings God and redeemed people into an everlasting relationship. Believers in Jesus are both born again and thus reckoned as children, and adopted into God’s family with the full benefits and responsibilities of adults.

Here’s how it works: In regeneration, the Holy Spirit makes us spiritually alive. That is, we are born again, or born from above (John 3:3-8). God considers us as newborn babes and addresses us as children. In adoption, the Spirit brings us into such a relationship with God that we are not only His sons and daughters, but joint heirs with Jesus, having the full privileges of adults.
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