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Monday, December 26, 2005

John Stott in his book "Authentic Christianity" published by Inter-Varsity Press picks up on the theme that many Christians mistakenly use Justification and Salvation interchangeable. He argues that salvation is a fuller concept. For me the end result of salvation is that Christlikeness is formed in us. He writes;

"Salvation and forgiveness are not convertible or interchangeable terms. Salvation is bigger than forgiveness ... forgiveness and holiness and immortality are all aspects of our salvation. Salvation is a good word; it denotes that comprehensive purpose of God by which he justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies his people: first pardoning their offences and accepting them as righteous in his sight; then progressively transforming them by his Spirit into the image of Christ, until finally they become like Christ in heaven, when they see him as he is, and their bodies are raised incorruptible like Christ's body of glory. I long to rescue salvation from the narrow concepts to which even evangelical Christians sometimes reduce it.
--From 'God's Man: Studies in 2 Timothy', in "The Keswick Week 1969", ed. H. F. Stevenson (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1969), p. 51.

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