“Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is
the fulfilling of the law. (11) And that, knowing the time, that now it is high
time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed.” Romans 13:10 - 11
Did you know that salvation is a three tenses process? Past,
present, and future, just as a person is tri-being, body, soul, and spirit,
just as God is a trinity Father, Son, and Spirit. Salvation does not end when
you believe, it ends when Jesus returns to rapture and resurrect His people
from the earth. The dead in Christ will have their bodies raised and they will
receive new glorified bodies and those who are alive will have been raptured
from the earth and their bodies will be changed. “Behold, I shew you a
mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1
Corinthians 15:51 - 52 Sin will no longer be a part of our life, our souls have
been redeemed, our spirits have been quickened, and last our bodies will be
redeemed. So, how is our salvation three tenses you might ask, past tense
is our justification, when the guilt and penalty of sin was removed from the
believing sinner. Present tense is our sanctification, which is the life
we live for the Lord Jesus Christ according to the direction and power of the
Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gradually conforms us to the image of our Lord by
causing us to walk holy on this earth. Future tense is our
glorification, the changing of our bodies at the Rapture into perfect bodies,
completing our process of salvation. This is what Paul was saying when he said,
“…for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” There will be
a time when sin will not be a part of the believer’s life, soul, spirit, or
body because all will be quickened, redeemed, and glorified when we are with
the Lord. For us who are alive, we are in our present tense which is our
sanctification stage. It is unfortunate that some believers sleep in this
stage, they are not fulfilling the commandments of the Lord. They walk
according to the course of this world and not according to the course of God’s
word. They have no gratitude toward God who saved their unworthy souls by grace,
by sacrificing His own Son at the wicked hands of Satan and evil people to save
our souls. God put all our sins on Him who knew no sin to bring us all to the
point of sanctification our present tense of salvation. They refuse to join
and/or attend church as though church is unimportant to them. They refuse to
support the local church as though its survival is unimportant to them. They
refuse to walk in the word because they do not attend church to learn God’s word
at feeding time. They refuse to let their spiritual light shine in this dark world
of sin, in fact some lights are so dim it can be hardly seen at all. Some
believers lack the most important ingredient of sanctification which is love.
Paul wrote “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour…” The word
"love" here is agapaō, which is divine love produced by the Holy
Spirit, remember the spiritual gifts given to us at salvation. Gal. 5:22 God
gave us love because love is required to serve God. “Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:10 Everything starts with love and
ends with love, God loved us so He elected us, adopted us, sent His Son to die
for us, redeemed us, sanctified us, and will glorify us in the end. This is how
important love is, and just as some believers have a dim light of sanctification
in their daily life, some have a dim light of love about them. Think about
this, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” 1
John 4:11 God never, does not show His love toward a believer!
