Pastor,
So, before you confessed Christ you were already saved?
Evan Ulmer
Hello Evan,
Well, careful theologians make the distinction between objective justification and subjective justification. Objectively, I was set apart for from the foundations of the world, justified in the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ and subjectively justified when the Holy Spirit regenerates and publishes to my consciousness my salvation to the end that we repent, confess, and subjectively inheriting what was laid up for me in the work of the Cross.
Think of Objective justification, as based on election from eternity past and as gained by the death of Christ on the Cross, as all the elect having an inheritance set apart for them that they will, by God’s grace alone, subjectively acquire on the appointed day of regeneration.
This is what the bible teaches,
1.) The lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13) thus giving us a glimpse that our Justification is eternal in its intent. This is underscored by the language in,
2.) Eph. 1:4 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He [a]made us accepted in the Beloved.”
This is reinforced in St. Paul’s language in Romans 3
3.) Jesus Christ was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised BECAUSE of our justification.
We were objectively justified in the work of Christ
In Christ, God’s elect one, Christ’s elect brothers and sisters were saved from the foundations of the earth. Hebrews 2 when take together with what we have already demonstrated states this as well,
Hebrews 2:4 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Note here that the elect were considered children BEFORE they partook of flesh and blood. Being the God of all grace to His pre-incarnate elect children the elect Christ is incarnated that His elect own might be released from the devil.
It is the Arminians who remove the focal point of the cross insisting that the Cross itself cannot saved. Arminians insist that “dead in trespasses and sins” humans must add their will to Christ’s work in order to make Christ’s work efficacious. Christ is the Nitro but he is an inert component without the glycerin of the human will consenting.
Calvinists believe that CHRISTS DEATH SAVES. Arminians believe that Christ death gives dead sinners the opportunity to save themselves by choosing Christ.
