Salvation and Sanctification.

The same GOD that spoke In the old testament Is the same GOD that speaks In the new testament and since the WORD of GOD does not change,does a person have to try and keep the ten commandments before they can be saved or do they only have to believe In the WORD of GOD to receive salvation and what In your opinion Is sanctification?

I looks like a tricky question but anyway I will give a shot at it. You have to believe in Jesus to be saved. The ten commandments did not save me from my depravation but my buddy Jesus did.

Obedience to the ten commandments can not save us. Believing the word of God does not save us. We are saved eternally only by God's grace, without the help of man. If there were stipulations that you have to do, it would be eternal salvation by works, and that just don't happen.

We were sanctified by Jesus's faithfulness to go to the cross. Gal 2:16.

Good point! God's grace in my case was and still is Jesus!

Nope, God doesn't expect anyone to clean up his/her act before He saves them, because He knows that they can't. In fact, He came here to save the wicked/ungodly (those who know that they need the Savior), not the righteous (who think they do not).

.........Mark 2
.........17 ..Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call
.........the righteous, but sinners.”

.........Romans 4
.........5 ..To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Rather, our ability to keep the Ten Commandments is a result of God saving us, not the cause!

~Deut

.........Galatians 3........
........21 ..If a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law.
.........

The cross changed everything!

This is a good question. After studying the bible for a while, I believe that God's qualities do not change, but his relationship with us as believers has progressed and so has his expectations. (Faith through Abraham, commandments through Moses, and love through Christ). We are no longer required to make animal sacrifices or expected to get circumcised. The old testament's laws and commandments were a type or prefiguring and foreshadowing of the new relationship God would have with Israel, which was salvation by grace by means of Jesus Christ, to put away sin and death forever. However as God's relationship with fallen mankind has progressed, he still expects us to understand every aspect of his deliverance. This requires us to follow a combination of all three stages in mankind's relationship with God...faith, following commandments, and exercising love. So the outline is given to us on how to be saved. #1 faith (Hebrews 11:1) "assured expectation of the things hoped for." Without faith you can't progress to #2, following the commandments. (1 John 5:3) "This is what the love of God means, that we follow his commandments..."So naturally the last step toward being saved is love, which is also a commandment which enters you into a special relationship with God. The scriptures say that even the demons believe the word of God. This doesn't mean that they are going to get salvation. Sanctification is the end result of applying all three stages, an, according to the scriptures, God's spirit does this. Possibly after conversion and baptism.

We are saved by grace through faith, not works (Ephesians 2:8,9) and not by “grace plus law, faith plus works.”

2 Corinthians 3:6 - who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

In regards to sanctification, becoming washed, sanctified and justified in Christ is a one time event (1 Corinthians 6:11), yet abstaining from sexual immorality (1 Thessalonians 4:3,4) is not a one time event.

I see what some refer to as "experiential" or "progressive" sanctification in which the reality of that holiness becomes more and more evident in our actions, words, thoughts, attitudes, and motives

Here is how I see it. The believer possess a positional, judicial standing of righteousness in Christ and, second, a remaining need for practical, progressive holiness in our behavior that is ongoing as we mature in Christ. We will reach ultimate or final sanctification when we receive our glorified bodies.

When you have really been saved and or written in the book of life, then you don't need the law, because it is written in your heart. So you don't even need to ask anyone if something is wrong , because you already know if it is or not.

I've never known a Christian who simply believed without having faith, works, and love. The bible says that you can have all the faith as to move mountains, but if you do not have love you are nothing...further, James 2:26 says "faith without works is dead". It doesn't matter how much faith you have if you don't bear fruit, your faith is in vain. faith is a requirement to please God, and we cannot "work" our way into the kingdom (so no man may boast) yet God wants us to exert effort to put on the new personality. This requires all three forms. In fact Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:26, compares putting on the mind of Christ to a fight...aiming his blows as not to strike the air. The scriptures clearly teach that the love of God means following his commandments. No so called Christian can live in sin and expect to reap the rewards of grace. In fact, you become unclean if you carry on willfully sinning. sanctification is something that God does for us as a reward for our faith, works, and love.

Roman 13:10 "Love does not work evil to one’s neighbor; therefore, love is the law’s fulfillment" I'm not talking about the Mosaic law. I'm talking about God's new laws and commandments. The "new" law is the commandment to love, and yes it was also an old command, but now it is applied to neighbor, God, and your enemies. (Romans 13:9) " For the law code, “You must not commit adultery, you must not murder, you must not steal, you must not covet,” and whatever other commandment there is, is summed up in this saying: “You must love your neighbor as yourself."

John 13:34-35 34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

The majority of Christians know nothing about the Cross of Christ for sanctification. Justification delivers us from the penalty of sin, while sanctification delivers us from the power of sin. The Cross of Christ is as necessary for sanctification as it is for salvation (1 Cor. 1:18). For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God (Romans 8:14 NIV).

Two kinds of peace:

1. Justifying Peace - This is Peace with God, a legal standing. Rom. 8:7; Eph. 2:14-15

2. Sanctifying Peace - This is the Peace of God in the heart. Rom. 8:6; 14:19; 15:13; Gal. 1:3

The first is the result of a legal standing. The second is the result of the Work of the Holy Spirit. The first is static, never fluctuates, the second changes almost from hour to hour. The first, every Christian has, the second, every Christian may have.

The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and the Law of Sin and Death (Rom. 8:2) are the two most powerful Laws in the Universe; the "Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus" alone is stronger than the "Law of Sin and Death"; this means that if the Believer attempts to live for God by any manner other than Faith in Christ and the Cross, i.e., "The Finished Work", i.e., "The Blood of Jesus," they are doomed to failure.

If a Christians faith is not maintain exclusively in Christ and His Finished Work, i.e., The Cross, i.e., The BLOOD of Jesus, the works of the flesh will manifest.

Paul tells us this in the 5th Chapter of Galatians. The entire Book of Galatians, but especially the 5th Chapter, is a warning from Paul to the Church at Galatia, which is also meant for us. The warning is that if they place their faith in anything except “Christ and Him Crucified,” that “Christ shall profit you nothing” (Gal. 5:2).

The Apostle goes on to say that if the Believer doesn’t adhere to the Way of the Spirit, which is the Way of the Cross, then works of the flesh will manifest themselves. He said:

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21).

Now let me say it again, because it is so very important:
If the Believer doesn’t understand the Cross of Christ, as it regards Sanctification, then, in some way, one or more of these “works of the flesh” are going to manifest themselves in his life. As stated, such is inevitable! The first four, “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness,” are obvious and easily understood. But the modern Christian quickly dismisses “idolatry, witchcraft, and heresies,” thinking they do not really apply today.

Everything that mans does dies; everything Jesus does lives forever and is blessed. Psalm 1:3

JSM

This is an interesting reply. How does understanding the cross of Christ absolve you from your internal conflict with sin? In the book of Romans Paul struggled with a "thorn in his flesh" a problem that affected his spirituality, yet god told him that his grace was sufficient for him. Sanctification is not something to understand as a mere mental exercise in my opinion, it's the result and operation of God's spirit in your life. You have to ask for it, and you have to "put the practices of the flesh to death" (Romans 8:13)

Neither have I. Faith without works is dead (James 2:20) and faith works through love (Galatians 5:6).

Paul emphasized the importance of love in 1 Corinthians 13. If someone has genuine saving faith in Christ and have received the Holy Spirit, it would be impossible for them to have NO love at all. 1 John 4:7 - Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

In 1 Corinthians 13:13, we see that love is the greater quality of the three because God is love and it outlasts them all. Long after faith and hope are no longer necessary, love will still be the governing principle that controls all that God and his redeemed people are and do. We will not need faith and hope in heaven.

In James 2:26, the comparison of the human spirit and faith converges around their modes of operation. The spirit (Greek pneuma) may also be translated "breath." As a breathless body emits no indication of life, so fruitless faith exhibits no indication of life. The source of the life in faith is not works; rather, life in faith is the source of works (Ephesians 2:5-10). In James 2:20, "faith without works is dead" does not mean that faith is dead until it produces works and then it becomes a living faith or that works are the source of life in faith. That's like saying a tree is dead until it produces fruit and then it becomes a living tree and the fruit is the source of life in the tree. *James is simply saying faith that is not accompanied by evidential works is dead. If someone says-claims he has faith but lacks resulting evidential works, then he has an empty profession of faith/dead faith (James 2:14) and not authentic faith.

If we have faith, then we have hope. Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The love of God has been poured out in the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit who was given to them (Romans 5:5).

1 John 5:3 - For this is the love of God, that we keep (Greek word "tereo" - guard, observe, watch over) His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

To "sin willfully" (Hebrews 10:26) in the Greek carries the idea of deliberate intention that is habitual, which stems from rejecting Christ deliberately. This is CONTINUOUS ACTION - A MATTER OF PRACTICE with no goal or effort to stop. Now we don't walk along our daily life and "accidentally" fall into a pit called sin. We exercise our will but, the use of the participle clearly shows a CONTINUOUS ACTION. The unrighteous practice sin - (1 Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:19-21); not the righteous, who are born of God - (1 Corinthians 6:11; 1 John 3:9).

I once saw an interesting thread on a different Bible discussion forum that discussed whether sanctification is and event, a process or both. It generated a lot of good discussion.

Excellent.
Thanks
mailmandan.

If you haven't believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did at the cross (believing what the word says about the Savior), then you are not saved.

There are 3 tenses to salvation. 1. We have been saved from the PENALTY of sin (justification) 2. We are being saved from the POWER of sin (ongoing sanctification) 3. We will be saved from the PRESENCE of sin (glorification)