Tag: Sanctification

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1 Thessalonians Chapter 4

Introduction: Now & Later

When I was a kid, I could always count on my Dad stopping at a convenience store for snacks.  One of my favorites growing up were the Now & Later candies. Apparently they have their name because you’ll enjoy them now and want some more later. I usually just enjoyed mine in the now and didn’t worry much about the later.

Paul combines these two aspects of time in our chapter this week. What we do now impacts the later. How we view the later often impacts what we do now. With this in mind, Paul discusses three important characteristics which believers should embody in the now (1-12) – purity (1-7), love (9-10), and life (11-12). Then, wanting to clear confusion among the church about the later, he speaks about the resurrection and rapture of God’s people (13-18).

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The God Who Saves: Present & Future Aspects of Conversion [Session 6]

In describing salvation, it has been said:

  • I am saved. (Past)
  • I am being saved. (Present)
  • I will be saved. (Future)*

The above statement reminds us that salvation is a process that God begins within the individual through soteriological concepts like regeneration, conversion, and justification. We have spoken about these concepts in some of our recent discussions. For those who have trusted Christ for redemption, these are past events.

Today, we want to turn our attention to the latter two. The present and future aspects of salvation.

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The Ordo Salutis

Doesn’t a title in Latin sound fancy? I don’t know why theologians have the habit of throwing in Latin and German terms. Maybe it’s to sound intelligent. I’m not really sure.

The Ordo Salutis simply means the “order of salvation”.

When we refer to the Ordo, what we are attempting to do is seek to understand the process in which God brings about salvation. We’re trying to put it into a logical order. Hopefully, the better we understand God’s saving work in our lives, the more we will love and appreciate Him. Theology should always lead to doxology.

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Exegetical Notes: Colossians 3:1-17

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

“If then you have been raised with Christ” – because of our identification with Jesus we have been granted new life which gives us the capacity to live a new kind of life. That new kind of life will be described in detail in the following verses.

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