In our last lesson we saw that Jesus Christ has ascended to heaven and is currently working as a Prophet, Priest and King. In this lesson we want to begin exploring redemption by taking a look at how Jesus Christ is using his authority in heaven and on earth to rule the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Redemptive work that Jesus Christ is doing can be divided up into two basic parts: 1) Distributing Common Grace, and 2) The Order of Salvation. In this lesson I want to share what these two parts contain.

(1) Distributing Common Grace

In Matthew 5:45 (ESV) the Bible says that God “makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” This single verse contains an idea that can be found in comments scattered all over the Bible and Christians who lived in the past referred to this as “Common Grace.”

In one of his theology books, Wayne Grudem says “We may define common grace as follows: Common Grace is the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not a part of salvation.”

The implication here is that God has certain things He is willing to do for everyone alive on the earth, whether they receive FORGIVENESS OF SIN or not. There are some acts of kindness God is willing to do, even for people who never find FREEDOM FROM THEIR SINS.

Common Grace is meant to provide pleasant experiences in life that can prepare us to receive salvation and Jesus Christ is working from Heaven right now to distribute “Common Grace” into the lives of people who follow other world religions in the hope of recruiting them out of those other world religions into HIs Kingdom as members of His Church.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Do you believe God withholds all good things from people who deny the Message of Christianity and follow other world religions?

#2. Do you believe God is willing to share good things on the earth with people like Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Epstein, even though they will never be welcome in Heaven when they die? (Why or why not?)

(2) The Order of Salvation

Now that we have explained Common Grace, we want to look at the Order of Salvation. The Order of Salvation is the plan that God made to provide FORGIVENESS OF SINS along with FREEDOM FROM SIN before the Universe was made.

I am going to explain what God’s plan was. This is very important because there have been many times in the past when the Church became confused about the Order of Salvation.

Their confusion led to many times when a “cultural” Christianity developed which allowed people who had not received FORGIVENESS OF THEIR SINS and were isolated and indifferent to God as a result into our local Churches as members and ministers.

The kind of “Cultural Christianity” allowed “Christians in Name Only” to support the Inquisition, the Crusades, the African Slave Trade and the Holocaust, just to name a few events in human history.

Having more of those kinds of events can be avoided when a local Church understands the Order of Salvation. So here is a list of the doctrinal topics found in the Order of Salvation which we will examine one at a time below:

Election, The Gospel Call, Regeneration, Being Born Again, Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, Perseverance of the Saints, Death, and Glorification.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Have you ever heard of the Order of Salvation before? (Why or why not?)

#2. Do you think being unfamiliar with the Order of Salvation allows “Christians In Name Only” to be accepted as Church members without them receiving FORGIVENESS OF SINS? (Why or why not?)

(3) Election

The first doctrinal topic in the Order of Salvation is known as Election.

Wayne Grudem wrote that “We may define election as follows: Election is an act of God before creation in which he chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of his Sovereign good pleasure.”

The basic idea here is that God came up with a plan to provide FORGIVENESS AND FREEDOM FROM SIN before He created the Universe and everything in it. This particular doctrine was developed in response to comments like this one discussing Jacob and Esau in Romans 9:11, which says this in the (ESV) Bible:

“Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad – in order that God’s purpose of election might continue…”

So before Jacob and Esau were born, God had made some decisions about how the lives of these two people would turn out. The implication here is that God designed each person who ever lived for a specific reason, and the people who did not live as a result of abortion or dying in war had something to offer that can never be replaced by anyone else.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Have you ever considered the idea that the details of your life were known to God before He created the universe?

(4) Effective Calling

In order to make sure people were able to contribute to the development of human civilization by bringing their very best in service to others, God began calling people to receive FORGIVENESS and FREEDOM FROM THEIR SINS.
We can also read about this in Romans 8:30 (ESV) which says “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

The main thing I want to call your attention to is the idea of us being called. God reaches out to every person inviting us to pay attention to who Jesus Christ is so we can receive FORGIVENESS OF SIN and FREEDOM FROM OUR SINS.

So when a person hears the Message of Christianity and decides to trust what it says, that person is experiencing what Christians in the past have referred to as “effective calling.”

In one of his theology books, Wayne Grudem says “We may define effective calling as follows: Effective calling is an act of God the Father, speaking through the human proclamation of the Gospel, in which he summons people to Himself in such a way that they respond in saving faith.”

So Jesus Christ is in Heaven organizing the details of our lives so that people who are not Christians will hear The Message of Christianity and receive God’s invitation to find FORGIVENESS OF SIN and begin learning how to maintain FREEDOM FROM THEIR SINS.

This is what the Bible refers to as salvation.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Have you ever known anyone who came to believe the Message of Christianity after hearing it from another person?

#2. Have you ever known anyone who came to believe the Message of Christianity without hearing it from another person? How did that person encounter the message without being told?

(5) Regeneration

The next thing we need to consider is what happens when a person hears the Message of Christianity and responds to Jesus Christ’s attempts to share God the Father’s invitation to receive FORGIVENESS OF THEIR SINS.

When the offer of salvation is heard and accepted, that person experiences what Christians in the past have called “Regeneration.” In one of his theology books, Wayne Grudem says “We may define regeneration as follows: Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us.” This is sometimes called “being born again” (using language from John 3:3-8).

Being born again (or regeneration) is the fulfillment of a promise God made in Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV) which says “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Discussion Questions:

#1. Has there ever been a moment when God removed the heart of stone in your life, and gave you a heart of flesh that could cause you to walk in His statutes and obey His rules?

#2. Have you ever been used by God to help other people receive a new heart, and a new spirit?

(6) Being Born Again

When a person has been born again, Christians in the past would speak of their “conversion.” Regarding conversion, Wayne Grudem says “We may define conversion as follows: Conversion is our willing response to the Gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation.”

What that means is that a change takes place in our lives. In Romans 3:23 (ESV) the Bible says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and when we are given a chance to hear the Message of Christianity and decided to let go of our fallen nature and trust the eye witness testimony in the Gospel God will change how he thinks of us.

Paul wrote about this in Ephesians 1:1-5 (ESV), which says “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, followed by the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.”

Discussion Questions:

#1. Was there ever a moment in the past when you realized something had changed and you were not yourself anymore?

#2. Has there been a moment in the past where you were sharing the Message of Christianity with someone and they experienced conversion?

(7) Justification

When a person hears the Message of Christianity and experiences a change of heart, there are some things God does outside of the universe to influence our lives in this world. The first thing God does is called “justification” by Christians in the past who received it.

In one of his theology books, Wayne Grudem says: “just what is justification? We may define it as follows: Justification is an instanteous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight.”

The idea here is that Jesus Christ, having all authority in heaven and on earth will sit down on God’s throne and make a decree changing how the universe operates. This decree means we are no longer viewed as being enemies of God.

Having received FORGIVENESS OF OUR SINS, God no longer holds us responsible for what we have done wrong in the past, which is why in Psalm 32:1-2 (ESV) the Bible says “Blessed is the one whose trangression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.”

Discussion Questions:

#1. Has there been a moment in your life when you realized that God justified you?

#2. Have there been moments when you were used by God to bring justification to others?

(8) Adoption

When God makes a decree of justification on someone’s behalf changing how the universe operates, the Bible tells us in John 1:12 (ESV) that He also adopts that person into His family: “but to all who did receive him and believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God.”

In one of his theology books, Wayne Grudem says “We may define adoption as follows: Adoption is an act of God whereby he makes us members of his family.” This can be compared to what Jesus told the Jews who rejected him in John 8:44 (ESV): “You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father’s desires.”

In his letters, Paul also addresses this issue in Ephesians 2:2-3 (ESV) where he talks about people being “sons of disobedience” and “children of wrath.” We can be “adopted” out of that into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus Christ is in Heaven right now working to create opportunities for you to participate in his work of bringing “sons of disobedience” and “children of wrath” into the Kingdom of Heaven as Church members.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Have you ever heard of “adoption” before?

#2. Has adoption been a part of your understanding of Church membership? (Why or why not?)

(9) Sanctification

The next part of the Order of Salvation is known as Sanctification, which Wayne Grudem explains this way: “Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.”

When we have been FORGIVEN FOR OUR SINS (justification), and are adopted into God’s family, we are adopted royalty and have to begin unlearning how to interact with this world as “sons of disobedience” and “children of wrath.”

In Romans 6:11 and 14 (ESV), Paul says this to the Church of Rome: “So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus…for sin shall have no more dominion over you.”

Jesus Christ is in Heaven right now working as a King with unconditional authority to create opportunities in your life for you to be faced with the opportunity to engage in sinful behavior and make the choice to walk away.

Jesus Christ does this so that angels in heaven, the demons on earth and the people around us every day can see we are not the “sons of disobedience” mentioned in Ephesians 2:2-3 (ESV) anymore.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Have you heard of sanctification before? (Why or why not?)

#2. Have you noticed sanctification occurring in your own life? (Why or why not?)

(10) Perseverance of the Saints

In his theology books explaining basic Christian beliefs, Wayne Grudem says “The Perseverance of the Saints means that all those who are truly born again will be kept by God’s power and will persevere until the end have been truly born again.”

This belief is a response to comments that Jesus Christ like this one in John 10:28 (ESV) where Jesus says that “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

When God sits down on this throne and makes a decree saying that a man or woman has received “eternal life” that decision on His part can never be reversed or changed. The danger here is that people who have not received “eternal life” can still be accepted as Church members while they remain “children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2-3 ESV).

There have been times in the past when Christianity became the preferred religion of a civil government and “children of disobedience” who had not received “eternal life” were welcomed as Church members and allowed to serve as Preachers and Teachers who spoke as God’s representatives without God.

We are warned about this in 2 Peter 2:1 (ESV), which says: “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.”

These false teachers will produce obstacles that can allow the “children of disobedience” who have not received “eternal life” from God to become a majority in a local Church and to appoint ministers who can mislead and misrepresent God in our local communities and Jesus Christ is working in Heaven to prevent this from happening to those who have received eternal life from God.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Have you been challenged by “children of disobedience” to compromise your faith before?

#2. Have you seen evidence of “children of disobedience” trying to change the standards for how our local churches are organized and the guidelines we are given to operate by?

(11) Death

While we are looking at the order of salvation, we must include the deaths of our physical bodies as a part of the salvation experience. When God created our world in the beginning, the kind of physical death that our bodies experience was not a part of the design.

When human nature became corrupt, death was added into all the “very good” (Genesis 1:31) things that God made in this world to be our home. The Bible presents death in two ways. We can die physically and spiritually.

A Christian is required to die physically at some point in their lives, although God has made a few exceptions in the past, and I do mean very few exceptions. So few in fact, that I see almost no reason to not believe we will experience a physical death. It is inevitable, it cannot be avoided.

In Hebrews 9:27 (ESV) the Bible says “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes the judgment.” Now for those who trust the Message of Christianity, death is only a door to something better than anything we have ever known in this world, even the best moments in our lives on earth cannot compare.

Discussion Questions:

#1. Do you consider death to be “normal?”

#2. Do you believe that death is a doorway to take a Christian to a better place?

(12) Glorification

The very last part of the Order of Salvation is known as Glorification. This particular doctrine explains what the Bible tells us happens to someone who believes the Message of Christianity after they die.

There are comments about this scattered all over the Bible, especially in the New Testament. Here are a few examples for you to consider:

In John 6:39-40 (ESV) Jesus Himself said “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose  nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Here are two comments the Apostle Paul made in his letters as well:

 “We wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:23 ESV)

“…that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:17 ESV)

Wayne Grudem wrote a summary of the Bible says will happen to someone who God recognizes as a Christian, and explains it this way:

“We may therefore define glorification as follows: Glorification is the final step in the application of redemption. It will happen when Christ returns and raises from the dead the bodies of all believers for all time who had died, and reunites them with their souls, and changes the bodies of all believers who remain alive, thereby giving all believers at the same time perfect resurrection bodies like his own.”

Discussion Questions:

#1. Is your relationship with God a celebration of the Hope of the Resurrection on the last day, or something else? (How can you be sure?)

Conclusion

Everything we have looked at is described in the Bible as God’s highest priority for people living in this world. This is a summary of what God has planned to do in the lives of anyone who would trust the Message of Christianity.

As a final discussion question, I want to ask the following question: Have you received the benefits of each part of the Order of Salvation? (Why or why not?)