Tenses of Our Pilgrim Walk
Scores of people who truly and whole-heartedly confess the Lord Jesus as Lord and Savior are inclined to doubt the certainty of their salvation due to the occasional resurrection of old desires in their lives. This meditation is therefore devoted to helping us realize our position in Christ Jesus and our responsibility as saints towards the ultimate realization of God’s purpose. It is to this effect that we shall speak of the pilgrim experience under three tenses as applicable to the Christian believer.
First, we shall consider God’s position on our past.
For every soul that has trusted in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and has been regenerated by the saving power of the risen Christ, the Holy Scriptures declares an unchangeable fact. We have been saved. The Bible illuminates our understanding with eternal light. Knowing this that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin-- Rm.6:6-7, For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God--Col.3:3. The Scriptures are plain. Our old man, that is our old nature of sin was crucified when we believed. No longer are we in danger of the possibility of an eternal loss of our souls. Between us and the dominion of Satan is an impassable gulf. We are dead to sin. Death describes cessation of life, and in this case, insensitivity to the kind of life that once controlled and ruled me. By the entrance of God’s word, my soul has been made to experience an irreversible spiritual revolution. My citizenship as an indigene of Satan’s kingdom is eternally revoked and nothing anywhere can change that fact. Every passion and desire that motivated me yesterday and continued then as the joy of my heart are now separated from me by a difference whose vastness is only captured in the difference illustrated between life and death. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires-Gal. 5:24.
It’s all in the past because, It is an accomplished fact. We have been saved and that, once and for all [Heb.10:10]. Christ declared, “it is finished.” Our pact with sin has been severed by virtue of our union with the Lord Jesus. And that is true once we yield to Him. From God’s standpoint the sinner is pardoned, accepted and approved as having died with Christ and having crucified the flesh and its desires.
“But I still am sensitive to and prone to yielding to evil,” someone may object. Experience compels us to agree. This definitely is indubitable and eventually leads us to examine the next tense of our pilgrim walk.
We are being saved [2 Cor.2;15].
It is an on-going process. Though saved from sin and its penalty, we are yet vulnerable to both spiritual and moral maladies. While Gal 5:24 declares our salvation to be an already accomplished fact, it only reveals that truth from the standpoint of God’s eternal ideal. That which we have to do at the moment is to discover the human responsibility towards the accomplishment of the glorious model. We pause to examine the word of God, Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry-- Col 3:5. The involvement of the human will becomes paramount if we would be where God wants us to be. There is no short-cut to being saved. The issue here is not salvation, for that has been promptly settled when we believed and apart from our efforts. But evil desires do not automatically wear out because we have come to saving knowledge of Christ Jesus. We are called to conflict. Conflict not against man but against every thought, against every word, against every attitude which was part of our old nature and are forbidden by the new nature. Our feet are set upon a road. The Ideal was revealed when we began the journey at salvation, presently we must work towards that ideal, putting off the old man and putting on the Lord Jesus, until we reach that glorious Land where perfection comes within our reach.
The apostle emphasizing this truth elsewhere, reports in different words. Work out your own salvation—Phil.2:12. Use your will; desist from that which will only lead you into bondage again. A great hymn writer once sang,
Yield not to temptation
For yielding to sin
Each victory will help you
Some other to win
Fight manfully onward
Dark passions subdue
Look ever to Jesus
He’ll carry you through.
The words of that hymn is addressed to not to sinners but to those who have experienced salvation, who have been declared crucified and who are pressing forward in the battle girded with the armor of God. The Bible corroborates the words of that hymn when the sacred penman recorded, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slave whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?—Rom. 6:16. We must, in the strength of the Lord, go through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of God. The highway of holiness is beset with snares, alternate routes and distracting noises and so we must beware lest we eventually miss the mark.
Indeed at salvation the battle against sin becomes many times more intense. A soul lamenting his experience once said to me, “The temptation to fornicate seemed to have doubled since I professed Christ, as a sinner I wasn’t this conscious of evil.” To that I replied, “The reception of the gospel provokes a struggle within the breast of the new believer.” But, “struggling” is only a sign of life and an evidence of two different kinds of life. This is no surprise to us. The Bible records, For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; ant these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish--Gal.5:17. There is a strive for mastery of the believer between the flesh and the Spirit. The minor events, words, decisions or speech that makes our days are of far reaching consequences.
Are you being saved? Are you daily being sanctified? Does each passing moment elevate you to higher realms of true spirituality or does it drag you down because you are careless, negligent or indifferent?
Believer, take time to be holy. It is worth it. It is only by doing so that you will be proving to the world what the ultimate will of God is. Be holy, for I am holy—1 Pt. 1:16 and that you are resolutely determined to advance in the direction of God’s purpose. Paul outlines his experience [Phil.3:12-14] and encourages you to do the same. [ Rom. 12:1-2]. The desire of God for me and you is that we be triumphant in our daily existence and may we so experience.
We come to the final tense of our Christian experience.
We shall be saved.
As long as we are in this world, it is an unavoidable fact that we shall never experience perfect sanctification. This is a sobering reality but it is nevertheless true.There shall be sad occasions of stumbling and periods of waning devotion. We are not yet perfected. There is still something to look forward to. This is no license to abuse liberty but a declaration of our sad limitations in this world. Should anyone be tempted to abuse the freedom we have in Christ? Then the standards of holiness must be noted, whoever has been born of God does not sin -1Jn.3:9. A life of open rebellion against the authority of the king of heaven does not signal true salvation. Mere mental assent to Bible truths, ordinary admiration of the great spiritual ideals with no corresponding life of obedience is a faith no higher than the devil’s [Jm 2:19]
But if we do stumble, and I think we occasionally would, we must immediately regret and confess it and God will accept us as though we never sinned. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous—1Jn.2:1. This is cause for joy.
Friend, are you rejoicing that you shall be redeemed to perfection. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God-- Col.3:3. This is our everlasting portion. Ought we not to exult at this prospect? Glory to God! I am saved, sin meets with defeat each time it confronts me, and I am sustained by the power of Christ as I am daily being stripped of all that might deny me admission into His celestial gates.
Let the Christian say amen. But is this your story dear one? Then blessed art thou. Do you have a contrary testimony though you profess Christianity? Listen, sin need not have dominion over you. But it does not happen automatically. You must yield your will and join the mighty host of God’s saints on earth in declaring,
In the cross, in the cross be my glory ever
Till my ransomed soul shall find
Rest beyond the River
--Fanny Crosby
When the words of this hymn becomes your daily testimony, then you are have something to look forward to Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified and whom He justified, these He also glorified--Rom. 8:30.
Called, justified, glorified. Nothing more needs be said. It is an accomplished fact. From the beginning to the end the whole program of salvation is certain. All who have been called to salvation, and are being justified in their daily triumphs over the forces that mar and spoils mankind, will eventually be glorified and perfected at the coming of Christ. Notice the word glorified is recorded in the past as though this were already a reality. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Soberly reflect, have you truly experienced salvation? Is your name registered in the records of heaven? If so, what is the practical daily proof? Are you still a slave of sin though you lay claim to genuine salvation in Christ? Do you take captive every thought that opposes God or do you give place to the devil in your home, in your place of work and in your relationships? Are you certain of your eventual eternal abode? Do you eagerly await and look forward to the glorious return of the Lord Jesus or will you be disgraced at His appearing?
The questions are but three. Where have you been? Where are you, and where are you going? Eternal issues hang in the balance as you seriously ponder these inquiries. May God give you wisdom.
Receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls-1Pt.1:9
