Salvation Equation

Revealing Grace + Repentance + Faith + Election + Spiritual Baptism + Conversion + Indwelling = Salvation + Works

Where:

Revealing Grace = hearing and understanding the call through the gospel of Christ.

Repentance + Faith = turning from our self-centered life to trusting in Christ alone with our life, now and forever.

Election = God choosing for salvation those whose faith He credits as righteousness.

Spiritual Baptism = God sets a person apart by placing them spiritually “in Christ.”

Conversion = Once “in Christ” a person undergoes the circumcision of Christ and arises “in Christ” a new creation, created for good works. It is a spiritual work of God, not us changing our minds.

Indwelling = After God puts us spiritually in Christ, He seals us with the Holy Spirit forever. The Holy Spirit provides each born again (converted) believer with light to understand the meat of God’s word, awareness of the will of God, and brings to mind our sins such that we are convicted. As we grow more mature, we will exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.

 

Lets unpack these equations:

God + God's purpose + God's plan which includes individually choosing the Word as His Lamb, His Redeemer and therefore corporately electing the target group, anyone who believes in Christ. All these steps are before the foundation of the world.

God's creation including the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the fall.

God's sacrifice of His Son providing the propitiation for all mankind, + God's gospel as the power of God unto salvation + hearing and understanding the gospel

Our individual response, putting our faith in Christ + God crediting our faith as righteousness + God setting us apart in Christ which is our individual election for salvation + regeneration (being made alive, born again together with Christ + circumcision of Christ + new creation created for good works + indwelling of Holy Spirit forever + God keeping us for our inheritance by protecting our faith + progressive sanctification where we can earn rewards + ultimate sanctification at the second coming of Christ where we are resurrected in glorified bodies and meet Christ in the air.

 

Well what does propititition mean? How do we determine of the meaning of a word that appears in our English translations. Do we not find out what the underlying Greek word or words are and then look at what the lexicon says, and then at how the word is used in other places in the Bible. Well, at least that is how I would start.

So the word (transliterated) is Hilasmos and means something that appeases. The thing of course is Christ for He became the propitiation for the whole world, 1 John 2:2. So Jesus is the means of salvation for the whole world. Now how you ask does a person receive the reconciliation provided by Christ's propitiation. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. That is why as ambassadors we beg the lost, "be reconciled to God. Trust and obey for there is no other way, He is the way, the truth and the life.

If you understand my view to be the same as Karl Barth, either you do not understand my position or his. See my thread on Corporate Election.

 

What about God opens the heart or eyes or whatever. Calvinists claim this means God supernaturally alters the person so they are no longer suffer from total spiritual inability, but that view is simply read into scripture to create claimed support for false doctrine.

Every teacher has "opened the eyes" of students, by providing information in a way they could understand. Now this information could be provided supernaturally, such as in a vision, i.e. Peter's dream, or it could be by Jesus simply explaining to Peter how Peter would die in the service of His Lord, John 21.

How were Lydia's eyes opened. She had heard and learned from the Father, for she worshipped God. Therefore, when she heard the gospel, the mystery of the coming of the Messiah was presented in a way that opened her eyes and she believed.

This is an example of how the minimalist principle of interpretation works, what is the simplest, most straightforward view making the fewest assumption. Once we start putting whole sentences between the lines, we have stopped trusting in scripture and started trusting in ourselves.

 

Hi Freeatlast, your view has no biblical support. Note all the passages where "babes in Christ" do not exhibit any fruit, having not yet learned from the indwelt Spirit. Now some people experience a changed life within days, while others, especially without someone coming along side to disciple them, might go for a long time still behaving like men of the flesh. Yes, I agree if conversion does not change your life its a red flag that you might not be "of the faith." But lets not put a 24 hour stop watch on it.

 

How long does it take to conclude a person is no longer "practicing sin." Or just because the old things have passed away and new things have come, 2 Cor. 5:17, does that mean we stop acting like men of flesh? How about the Galatians as in 1:6? How about 1 Cor 3:1-3.

As I said, your view has merit, but misses the reality presented in scripture as to timing.

 

Freeatlast, the issue is not "practicing sin" it is about manifesting the fruits of the Spirit.

I have cited passage after passage that demonstrates my view. The Galatians were not "practicing sin" because they thought their works based view was in accordance with the will of God, but it was sin all the same, and did not manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 is not about being divided on issues, but about not being able yet to handle spiritual meat, because they were still "manifesting" the works of the flesh.

We do not significantly disagree that no one born of God practices sin, but it takes time for the Spirit to prune us through shame and repentance.

 

I have told you what the word means as used in the Bible, just one way. Words have meaning. Those that say the same word means this here and the opposite there are making scripture to no effect, subsitituting the author's intended message with their own invention.