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The Daily Word of Righteousness
De Jure and De Facto Salvation, continued
I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. (Jude 1:5)
"After having saved . . . afterward destroyed."
Salvation is deliverance from sin—from its guilt, its power, and its effects. We begin the process of salvation by obtaining, through faith in Christ's atoning blood, freedom from condemnation, from guilt.
After we have been set free from condemnation we must press forward in the program of redemption. If we do not we will die in our sins. In this instance we have obtained forgiveness through the atoning death of Christ and then have turned back into bondage. Therefore we have not been redeemed from the hand of the enemy. We still are bound by the chains of sin. We shall die in the wilderness, so to speak.
Many individuals who receive the Lord turn away from the Lord after a period of time, as in the parable of the sower. They enter salvation and then do not follow the Lord any longer. The New Testament Scriptures warn us of the danger of putting our hand to the plow and looking back, and the possible outcome of doing so.
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. (II Peter 2:20,21)
The Christian salvation is infinitely more than a de jure (legal) state of freedom from condemnation. It is "the way of righteousness"—a way of living and behaving.
In Chapter Seven of the Book of Romans, Paul explains that each of us—Jew, Christian, or heathen—has a compulsion to sin dwelling in our flesh. Truly, every human being is "shapen in iniquity" and conceived in sin (Psalms 51:5).
In Chapters Three through Five of the Book of Romans, Paul has shown us God's plan for removing condemnation from us so we can be accepted of Him.
In Chapter Six, Paul explained to us that we must not interpret his teaching concerning freedom from condemnation to mean it no longer matters how we behave ourselves in this world. It is true that we have been set free from condemnation. Now we must walk in newness of life in the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we continue to sin after having been washed in the blood of the cross we will die in our sins. The wages of sin is death whether we are a Jew, a Christian, or an unbeliever. If we do not allow the Nature and power of Christ to break the hold of sin on us, we will die. The wages of sin is death!
God has offered eternal life to us through Christ. We must diligently lay hold on this life. We must, through Christ, overcome Satan and our own perverted personality for they continually are striving to prevent our deliverance from sin and death (I Timothy 6:12; Revelation 2:7).
To be continued.