Salvation Is Simple:
Start With Your Conviction of Sin and Confession of It
+ God's Instant Justification
+ God's Instant Credit of Jesus' Righteousness
= Salvation
As you grow, the process is called Sanctification.
1. Realize right from wrong - Leviticus 4:27-29 (If you do wrong, bring to God a sacrifice and your substitute. Jesus is our substitute. See John 3:16.)
2. Confess your sins - 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (Notice that God does the work.)
3. God Justifies you - Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Establishes a right relationship with God, one in which the process of character development, or sanctification, becomes possible.
Called in the New Testament:
Fighting the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:11, 12),
Walking in newness of life (Rom. 6:4),
Growing up into Christ (Eph. 4:15),
Growing in grace (2 Peter 3:18),
Being built up, strengthened, established (Col. 2:6, 7),
Being transformed (Rom. 12:2),
Partaking of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4),
Patiently running the Christian race (Heb. 12:1.)
Justification comes exclusively through faith in Christ. The very heart of the gospel is the concept that a sinner can become right, or just, before God by faith in the vicarious sacrifice of Christ. God accepts as His sons those who receive and believe in Christ (John 1:12–13; 3:3, 16), “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:5). Justification is by faith alone because it cannot be attained by works. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8, 9). No one can be justified in God’s sight by works of law, but only by faith in the power of Christ to save an individual from sin and death (Rom. 6:23; Gal. 2:16). “The just shall live by faith” (Gal. 3:11). “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”; by faith we are “reconciled to God” (Rom. 5:1, 10). Faith in Christ releases a sinner from condemnation and makes it possible for that person to stand righteous before God (Rom. 7:24 to 8:4).
4. God credits you with the righteousness of Jesus - Romans 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
5. God sanctifies you - John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
6. Salvation - God’s gracious provision for delivering sinners from the penalty and the power of sin, and for restoring them to their original state of perfection. The release of the sinner from condemnation is called justification; the process of character transformation is called sanctification; the restoration of immortality is called glorification. Salvation comes as a free gift of God’s grace, and is accepted by faith in Christ. It is available to all, but becomes a reality only in the experience of those who, by their own free choice, accept it. It is not irresistible, as Augustine taught. The Seventh-day Adventist concept of salvation corresponds closely to the historic Methodist understanding, especially as set forth by John Wesley.
Born-again Christians are perfect before God due to their acceptance of Christ’s righteousness to atone for their past sins (Rom. 5:1) and their commitment to cooperate with Christ's transforming grace and power now at work in the mind and life (Rom. 12:1; Gal. 2:20).
