But if we are not saved until we are sanctified, and practical sanctification can take a life time, then we are not truly saved until we are practically sanctified, quite a while after we are positionally sanctified?
ben, I have been telling you the TRUTH. HE wrote our names in the BOOK OF LIFE BEFORE HE FORMED THE EARTH. HE knows who will be Faithful and who will fall away, before HE wrote our names in the BOOK OF LIFE. The old argument between Calvinist and Armenians is it Predestination OR Freedom to CHOOSE WHO YOU WILL SERVE, and few have ever realized that the TRUTH is not in those two opposite choices. The THIRD CHOICE is HE CHOSE US before HE formed the WORLD, because HE KNEW who would CHOOSE HIM without falling away. IT IS BOTH, and I am convinced that is the truth.
SALVATION IS IN THAT MOMENT OF TIME WHEN WE FIRST BELIEVED, because HE knows every decision we will make before HE formed the WORLD. IT IS A DONE DEAL, before we made those DECISIONS, therefore the SAVED are those who genuinely CHOOSE to BELIEVE.
AFTER WE ARE SAVED, then ALL of the Decisions about being
SANCTIFIED WILL be made.
John 14:15 (HCSB)
15
“If you love Me, you will keep My commands.
If we are Truly Born Again:
Why DO WE WANT TO BE SANCTIFIED?
Because we are GOD's Children, and we WANT to be like our Heavenly Daddy.
If we Please Him, some day HE will reward good behavior,
and SALVATION IS NOT A REWARD, IT IS A FREE GIFT.
If we Do No Please Him, HE will give us a good spanking.
So all you Armenians and Calvinist, go ahead and throw your STONES,
But that is what the HOLY SPIRIT has put on my heart to BELIEVE.