Not Quite Finished

Wednesday, 13th August 2008

Let's continue with the review of Mt Sinai Resources with the book entitled "It is Not Quite Finished...You must work your salvation with fear and trembling".

One of the doctrines that seems to have crept into Christianity -- but does not seem to have any biblical basis -- is that salvation is made up of 3 distinctive stages:

(1) Justification
(2) Sanctification
(3) Glorification

Saying the sinnner's prayer only causes a believer to be at stage 1, where he is justified before God.

He then needs to go through a process of sanctification through the living of a holy life, doing good deeds (giving tithes, serving in church, etc) and refraining from bad deeds (smoking, gambling, swear words, etc).

Finally, when he dies, he reaches the stage where he is glorified.

If this is indeed the case, then I wonder why Jesus told the robber who was crucified next to him that he would be with him in paradise, because he was never given the chance to go through the sanctification process.

Please allow me to get this point across: God does not set one set of rules for some, and another set of rules for others. Salvation is NOT a 3-stage process. It is instantaneous -- we are saved the moment we believe in our heart and confess with our lips.

When Jesus hung on the cross, He cried out "It is finished!" which means we cannot add to it by our deeds. It is by His grace, and His grace alone.

The problem with some of us is that we hold on to this belief that it is "not quite" finished, and the often-misquoted verse to justify this is Phil 2:12, where Paul told the church in Philippi to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling".

The Message's paraphrase by Eugene Peterson is more consistent with the rest of scripture, and it reads "Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God."

Furthermore, verse 12 ends with a semi-colon, so it needs to be read in context with verse 13, which says, "for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." That means to say that it is not through our own our self-efforts, but it is God that works in us.

When we see a masterpiece drawn by a renowned artist in a museum, or listen to a musical written by a renowned composer at a theatre, we would just behold and appreciate the work of art, and not think do something foolish like adding a stroke to the painting, or adding a string of notes to the performance.

Yet when it comes to Jesus' finished work on the cross, there are some who think they are cleverer than God and try to add to it with our good works and deeds...