At present, we are working with the light of truth presented by Dr. Francis Schaeffer from his book True Spirituality where we are discussing the basic considerations of the Christian life, or true Christianity.
Part 25
Salvation:  Past – Future – Present

Continuing from yesterday…. 

Justification must be understood to be absolutely irrevocable, for Christ took the punishment of all our sin, not just our sin up to the moment when we accepted Christ as our Savior.  Nothing is left to be charged to our account.  Seeing it this way, which is the biblical way to see it, there are no degrees of justification.  One cannot be more or less justified.  In this sense one cannot be more or less Christian.  One is a Christian, or not a Christian, on this basis.  Just as one is born or not born, married in God’s sight or not married, so one has accepted Christ as Savior, and thus is declared justified by God, or not.  There is no halfway, no degrees.  Guilt is totally gone from the Christian, and gone forever.  Therefore, for the Christian, justification is past.   

But we must not make a mistake here.  Salvation, as the word is used in scripture, is wider than justification.  There is a past, a future, and a real present.  The infinite work of Christ upon the cross brings to the Christian more than justification.  In the future, there is glorification.  When Christ returns, there will be the resurrection of the body, and eternity.  But there is also a present aspect of salvation.  Sanctification is our present relationship to our Lord, the present tense.  (We will drill-down into ‘sanctification’ tomorrow) 😊 

Thoughts developed or used directly from the work of Schaeffer, Francis. True Spirituality . Tyndale House Publishers, Inc