I would like
to share with you why I do not buy into the mindset of, “everything that is
wrong with us was dealt with at the cross.” Or, perhaps it would be better to
say, I don’t buy into the mindset that everything that is wrong with us was so
dealt with at the cross that there is no longer anything wrong with us.
My pastoral
journey in understanding the kinds of things that can be wrong with God’s
children has mostly revolved around the effects of childhood trauma. When I
first began learning about these things it was a huge shock to my system to
realize that receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ did not wash all the
heartaches away. There was more work needing to be done, and Jesus expected his
church, his body, to work with him as he applied the ongoing work of healing to
those who needed such a gift of grace.
The next shock
to my system was to meet professing Christians who insisted that God’s children
did not have any ongoing problems from their childhoods because “everything was
dealt with at the cross.” It wasn’t just a shock to discover how adamantly
people would defend such a position, but also how they would treat the people
who were trying to bring their unresolved problems to the church for help. There
was no help offered because there was no problem admitted.
So, what is
wrong with the position of those who say that everything that is wrong with us
was dealt with at the cross, and now people do not have any ongoing trauma from
childhood abuse, any lingering problems with depression, and most certainly no
possible room for demonic activity.[1]
The problem is
that people who hide themselves in their I’m-using-the-cross-as-a-cover-for-my-denial
position forget that the cross gives us a three dimensional salvation. The
three dimensions of our salvation are summarized as justification,
sanctification, and glorification. Justification focuses on what was applied to
our lives at the moment of our conversion,[2]
glorification focuses on what will be applied to our lives at the return of Jesus
Christ and the resurrection experience, and sanctification summarizes our
journey of growing up in Jesus Christ.
Once we remind
ourselves that the cross of Jesus Christ gives us these three dimensions of
salvation, we can then look at anything going on in any believer’s life and identify
which dimension of our salvation we are dealing with. For example, if a
believer is struggling with depression, everything true about their justification
by faith is still true, and is one hundred percent complete in their lives
whether they know it or not. It is also true that, no matter how much they
struggle with negative thoughts and feelings, the reality of their
glorification is also true, that they will become just like Jesus when he
returns and they see him as he is.[3]
However, when
we understand the sanctification journey of the Christian life, we know that we
are all starting out as babes in Christ.[4] We
need to be part of an “each part is
working properly” kind of church[5] to
grow to maturity in Christ, what Paul describes as, “to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ.”[6]
We know that all believers can “be
transformed by the renewal of your mind,”[7]
but the fact that Paul had to teach the church to do this means that it is a
process that needs to be learned.
How do we find
comfort in the cross when dealing with unresolved “issues” from the past? How
do we unite as the church to help each other with the sanctification-journey, just
as families walk together as each member grows up from whatever age and level
of maturity they are starting from?
The answer is
to apply each dimension of our salvation to whatever anyone is going through. The
cross gives us past, present, and future grace. We who believe in Jesus Christ
are justified, are being sanctified, and will be glorified. Each dimension
ministers to us in anything we are facing, and helps us accept whatever other believers
are going through.
When believers
in Jesus Christ face painful issues of any kind, we are comforted by our
justification by putting our faith in what is already completed in our lives. We
are “in”.[8] We
are “born again.”[9] We
have a new birth that has given us a new life.[10]
We are safely in the hands of Jesus Christ our Lord, and no one can snatch us
out of his hands.[11]
We can have every problem that Christians describe as going on in their lives,[12]
with no need to deny anything a Christian is going through, because us and our
problems are in the hands of our Savior. In the same way as our birth is a past
event that was completed at the time, our past experience of justification by
faith is complete, and final. It does not deny the problems we face in the
present, but it gives us the foundation on which to experience healing and
freedom in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We can also
face painful experiences of the present time with an eye to the absolute
certainty of our future glorification in Christ. Yes, the cross has given us
our glorification as a gift, but the benefit of being completely free from the
world, the flesh, and the devil, is not yet ours. It is called hope because it
is both certain, and future. Peter described it as, “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in
heaven for you.”[13]We
can look to this perfect inheritance, and all that it contains, but as
something that is waiting for us in heaven. Its time will come.
As we struggle
through any life-experience, this future hope in our absolute, finished,
complete, Christlikeness, helps us move through things that in this lifetime
sometimes seem so far from the finished product. That’s okay, because we are
not yet in our glorification. Justified out of our sin? Yes. Glorified into sinless-perfection?
Not yet.
The present
struggle with anything we face in our life-experiences is also encouraged along
by our sanctification. Paul describes our ongoing growth in Christ in the most
hope-filled terms when he writes, “And we
all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”[14]
The reason
there is hope for every troubling situation we face, including the sudden
flashbacks of childhood trauma, the overwhelming pain of immediate trauma,[15]
or conflicts of body, soul, and/or spirit that leave us confused about what we
are actually dealing with, is because of the fact that God is presently
changing us, transforming us, to be like Jesus. We are changing. Whatever we
face now, God can change it degree by degree, glory to glory.
To put this all
together, we can live by faith in what God is doing at the present time in our
sanctification, knowing that he will make everything right in the end in our glorification, because he has made
everything right in our beginning, our justification by faith. And, we can
thank God that, through the cross, all three are ours, each in their place,
each perfectly accomplishing what God has chosen to do. As Paul declared, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a
good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”[16]
The “began a good work” is our
justification, the “bring it to
completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” is our glorification, and the being
“sure of this,” along with the “good work” that is still in process, is
our sanctification leading us from start to finish.
I am on a
quest to help believers come together in unity with an understanding of how the
cross has given us three dimensions to our salvation. Once we appreciate the
past completion of our justification by faith, our future hope of complete
glorification into the likeness of Jesus Christ, and our present journey of
growing up to be more and more like Jesus, we can unite around whatever is
going on in our lives now. We can work together to discover how the cross of Jesus
Christ has given us everything we need to “maintain
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,”[17]
even when that means we must work through things we all wish were no longer
part of our lives.
One thing we
cannot do is tell someone that he or she not dealing with bad things because Jesus
already dealt with those things on the cross. That is bad doctrine, and a bad
application of “teach what accords with
sound doctrine.”[18]
Instead, we
tell each other that, no matter what we are facing, the justification by faith
that is ours through the cross gives us a new life in Jesus Christ in which all
the promises of God will be fulfilled. We remind each other that, no matter
what is going on, and no matter how confusing and traumatic it may feel, the
cross of Jesus Christ has given us our future glorification as surely as if it
was already ours, and God will complete all the good plans he has started in
our lives. And we tell each other that we fully accept whatever anyone in the
church is going through because the cross of Jesus Christ has given us our
sanctification, and the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit, to assure that
we will constantly change to be like Jesus “from
one degree of glory to another.”
So, got
problems? Got trauma? Got spiritual defeat? How ‘bout depression? Watching stuff
you shouldn’t? Can’t seem to stop? Got needs going on inside you that nothing
seems to satisfy? Your justification by faith on one side, and your
glorification by faith on the other, assure you that your present journey of
sanctification leads from the new life you were born into, to the new home Jesus
is preparing for you in heaven.
Keep on keeping
on, as someone said. “Bear with one
another in love.”[19] Welcome
those whose faith is weak.[20]
Let love cover over a multitude of sins.[21]
Welcome whatever anyone in the church is going through. Run the race with perseverance,
even if healing must take place for you to do so.[22]
The prize is worth it.[23]
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
This is only a summary of the kinds of things that some Christians say they are
still struggling with, while others are demanding that no such things are
possible because of the cross. If you have other lingering “stuff”, be
encouraged with what I am sharing here.
[2]
We do not need to remember or identify the moment of our conversion to know
that we are justified by grace through faith. In the same way as we all know we
are alive without remembering being born (thankfully), if we know we are alive
in Jesus Christ, everything about our justification by grace through faith
applies, whether or not we know the exact time that our new birth took place.
[3]
I John 3:1-2
[4]
I Peter 2:2
[5]
Ephesians 4:16
[6]
Ephesians 4:13
[7]
Romans 12:1-2
[8]
The book of Ephesians seems to be the most concentrated emphasis on what it
means to be “in Christ”. The first 14 verses of the book direct us to a variety
of synonymic expressions. This “in Christ” experience is completely settled in
our justification, even though we remain in desperate need of daily
transformation to be like him.
[9]
John 3:3; context is John 3:1-15
[10]
I Peter 1:3; II Corinthians 5:17
[11]
John 10:28-29
[12]
Yes, even the testimonies of demonic activity
[13]
I Peter 1:4
[14]
II Corinthians 3:18
[15]
As is the case with some of the horrific experiences of persecution the church
is facing, along with any immediate experiences of sexual abuse, rape, domestic
violence, and the like.
[16]
Philippians 1:6
[17]
Ephesians 4:3
[18]
Titus 2:1
[19]
Ephesians 4:2
[20]
Romans 14:1
[21]
I Peter 4:8
[22]
Hebrews 12:1
[23]
I Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 3:8; 3:13-14; Romans 8:18; I Peter 4:13
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