33 Things

33 Things that happen at the moment of salvation

33 Things that happen at the moment of salvation

  1. The Believer Is in the Eternal Plan of God.

God has a purpose for every believer. Each believer is significant in God’s eternal purpose. God will fulfill that purpose with an absoluteness that belongs to his infinity. 


Rom 8:29-30

29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.


2. Redeemed

The believer is purchased out of the slave market of sin. Even his physical body will be redeemed. 


Rom 3:24

Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.


3. Reconciled

The Christian has a perfect and unending peace with God on the ground of the merit of Christ. 


2 Cor 5:18-20

18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”


4.  Related to God Through Atonement

God is satisfied that the sin problem has been solved perfectly. The ever-recurring need of adjustment between God and the child of God is possible because of propitiation (or atonement). God is now free to relate to believers.


1 John 2:2

He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.


5. Forgiven All Trespasses

All trespasses past, present and future are covered. All condemnation is removed forever. We, therefore, have an abiding peace with God.


Col 2:13

13 You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.


6. Sin Crucified with Christ

The death of Christ is a judgment of the sin nature. God is now righteously free to deal with that nature (capacity) as a thing judged. The believer is thus delivered from the power of sin. We are placed permanently before God as totally judged in Christ. 


Gal 2:20

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.


7. Free from the Law

The law is a system which demands behavior. The things to the believer under grace (the new system) are unrelated to human behavior. Since the child of God is already accepted in the beloved and stands forever in Christ, The believer does not do to be blessed. He does because He is blessed. 


Gal 5:1-4

So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.


8.  Children of God

The believer becomes an heir of God. He is born into the family of God. 


John 3:3,7

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’


9.  Adopted as a “Son”

Divine adoption is an act by which one is placed forward as a son or daughter in his relation to God. We are placed before God as a son or daughter with the right to draw on eternal assets.


Eph 1:4-5

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.


10.  Acceptable to God by Jesus Christ

Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit the Christian is joined to Christ. He, therefore, partakes of all that Christ is. There is imparted to him eternal life (John 20:31); righteousness (II Cor. 5:21); act of being made holy (sanctification) (I Cor. 1:30); perfected forever (Heb. 10:4); made accepted in the beloved one (Eph. 1:6); and made meet (Col. 1:12). 


2 Cor 5:21

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.


11.  Justified

The believer is declared righteous by God. When God looks at you, he sees Jesus' righteousness.


Rom 5:1

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.


12. Made High

A work of God where a Christian is brought into a relationship to God which is perfect and complete.


Eph 2:13

13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.


13. Delivered from the Power of Darkness

Freedom from satanic and demonic realms.


Col 1:13

13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son


14. Translated into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love

At salvation we are inducted into and established in the kingdom of God’s dear son. The word “translated” indicates removal from the sphere of Satan’s dominion to that of Christ.


1 Thess 2:12

12 We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.


15.  On the Rock, Christ Jesus

This is not salvation of Christian character but of Christian service. All Christian work should be built upon Christ, not sand.


Matt 7:24-27

24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”


16.  A Gift from God, the Father, to Christ

The Father has given each believer to the Son. We are the Father’s love-gift. The believer’s security rests on the Father’s faithfulness to His Son, Jesus Christ. 


17.  Circumcised in Christ

We stand before God as one whose sin capacity has been judged and for whom a way of deliverance from the realm of the flesh (our humanity and sin nature) has been secured. 


Eph 2:17

17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.


18. Partakers of a Holy and Royal Priesthood

Every saved person in the present age is a priest unto God. He also has a kingly reign.


1 Pet 2:5

And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.


19.  A Chosen Generation, A Holy Nation, A Peculiar People

“Generation” – the believer is an offspring of God.“Nation” – a separate and distinct grouping among all the peoples of the earth.“Peculiar People” – born of God and are, therefore, not of this world.


1 Pet 2:9

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.


20. Heavenly Citizens

The sphere of the believer’s citizenship is heaven, not earth. We are merely travelers here.


Phil 3:20

20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.


21. Of the Family and Household of God

We have a true relationship with God as our Father. This is more restricted in extent that “citizenship."


Eph 2:19

19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.


22. In the Gathering of the Saints

As the “citizenship” pertains to a relation to heaven, and “household” to God, so the gathering of the saints we get to act one to another, as the Bible puts it. This is a spiritual family tie.


Eph 4:1-3

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.


23. A Heavenly Association

The phrase, “the heavenly places”, is the believer’s right of association with Christ. We are partners with Christ in:  


1) Life – Col. 1:27 
2) Position – Col. 3:1
3) Service – I Cor. 15:58
4) Suffering – I Pet. 4:1213Phil. 1:29
5) Prayer – John 14:12-14
6) Marriage – Eph. 5:24-57
7) Expectation – Tit. 2:13Heb. 10:13 


24. Having Access to God

We have access:

1) Into His grace. The believer is not only saved by Grace, but he stands in grace, Rom 5:2

2) Unto the Father. Eph. 2:18 

3) In reassuring. The believer is urged to come with confidence. Heb. 4:1610:10-20 


25. Within the Much More Care of God

If God loved sinners and enemies enough to give His son to die for them, His attitude will be “much more” toward them when they are saved and justified.


Rom 5:8-10

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.


26. His Inheritance

The child of God is an inheritance of the Father.


Eph 1:6

So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.


27.  The Inheritance of the Saints

The believer has an inheritance in God. His inheritance is God Himself and all that God bestows. 


Col 3:24

24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.


28. Light in the Lord

God is transparently holy. The believer has, by Grace, become light.


Eph 5:8

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!


29.  Vitally United to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

It is said that


1) The believer is in God, the Father. I Thess. 1:1
2) God, the Father, is in the believer. Eph. 4:6
3) The believer is in the Son. Rom 8:1
4) The Son is in the believer. John 14:20
5) The believer is in the Spirit. Rom. 8:9
6) The Spirit is in the believer. I Cor. 2:12 Note the word “in” in each case. 


30. Blessed with the Benefits of the Spirit


1)  Born of the Spirit. John 3:6
2)  Baptism by the Spirit. I Cor. 12:13
3)  Indwelt by the Spirit. Rom. 5:58:9
4)  Sealed by the Spirit. Eph. 4:30
5)  Filled with the Spirit. Eph. 5:18 


31. Glorified

What God has determined, though it be yet future, is properly looked upon as sufficiently certain to be considered a present achievement.


Rom 4:17

17 That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.


32. Complete in Him

Because of his vital union with Christ, the believer partakes of all that Christ is. The Father takes delight in the Son, nor can He find delight in that which is less than the perfection of the Son. 


Col 2:9-10

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.


33. Possessing Every Spiritual Blessing

All of the preceding thirty-two points are to be included in the sweeping term, “all spiritual blessing”,


Eph 1:3

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

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