The Doctrine of Soteriology

So, this everyday reality of interacting and intertwining with Christ, you can look at it in several different ways. Metaphorically, it is one of that is rising up, and so rising into Christ, or contextually, to stand up and to make one's stand. Literally, it is a physical change of position. So, your position has changed in Christ once you are saved and you remain in His rest. Positionally, you are not in an area of anxiety or an area of turmoil. You are positionally in Him and in Christ spiritually. It is one of an eternal change. There has been an internal salvation that has happened inside of your soul to enter into this rest. Doctrinally, it is definitely salvific in that you have been saved, gloriously saved.

So, now, if I could take just a moment to capitalize on a rich doctrine that is called soteriology that we see in this idea of entering into the rest of the Lord Jesus Christ, His rest. Salvation is being saved from the eternal punishment of your sins. John 3:36 says, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him." And fleshing out this idea of the doctrine of soteriology, salvation from your sin is that Jesus died for your sin. Instead of you dying, Christ died. 1 Corinthians 15:1–4 explains the death and the burial and the resurrection of the Lord.

Salvation is God's acting upon us, choosing and selecting us. We once were dead and now we've been made alive. In Ephesians 2:1, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. And in verse 5, even while we were dead, He made us alive together in Christ. So, God's acting upon us made us alive together in Christ. We once were dead, we once were lost, now we're found, now we're made alive. This is salvation in Christ.

The ordo salutis, this Latin term, helps us to understand how this happens. And it's not perfect, and it's not something that really needs to be diced up, but it's helpful to be able to understand how God acts upon us. And so, this logical scriptural order or sequencing of events happens like this. Eleven points, so I'll just go through them quickly.

The first is the decreeing of God — that God spoke first in decreeing something and He also created something and that He is also saving something. And so, we see that from the beginning in Genesis, God decrees things. He speaks things into existence. He acts upon. And then also predestining, in Ephesians 1:5, this is His good will of predestining things that He will do. And then 3, electing. Romans 9:11 is the act of God selecting or choosing. And then the calling — number four is calling. Jesus, preaching the gospel to all. Matthew 4:23 is the example we see as well among many others where the gospel call to all is happening. And then fifthly, renewing. We've been persuaded by the gospel and freely accept the offer of salvation. You see that in John 1:12.

And so, as we are then continuing in this process, we see a sixth element of confessing. We verbalize the faith that God gave us. In John 9:38, it says this, simply, "Lord, I believe." Lord, I believe — you are able to confess. And then seventh, repenting. Godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation. 2 Corinthians 7:10 — repenting is part of it. And then eight, a pardoning. God applies His righteousness and we are made just before Him eternally. 2 Corinthians 5:21 talks about how He's been made righteous. That's wonderful. Ninth, you have adopting. We're made children, and then we have benefits bestowed upon us, 1 John 3:1. And then we are engaged in the sanctifying process. Ten is sanctifying — the continual process of abstaining from evil in 1 Thessalonians 4:3. And then ultimately glorifying, made perfect with the Lord, 1 Thessalonians 4:17.

This order of salvation happens so quickly. Some of these points are worked out over time, but mostly it's just an interesting — and we are then saved, gloriously saved and on our working part of being sanctified in Christ. It's interesting in Philippians 2:12 that it says to continue to work out your own salvation.

And this is the part we're talking about today in regards to applying rest, working out your salvation, applying the rest that is available to you in Jesus. And so singularly, salvation is a monergistic work of God, but synergistically, we have a part to play in working out our own salvation by way of sanctification. And so we're to work this thing out. We're to be being refined.