I need to clarify one is sue in my editorial "Confused Over the Basis of Salvation" (July 1991). Marvin Moore (see his response on page 13) states that he agrees with most of my editorial, yet he differs on the key point that sparked the editorial in the first place.
Moore argues that "conversion is a qualification for salvation," and therefore we ought to ask ourselves, "Am I converted?" He maintains that a justified person is saved, but he cannot be saved without the new birth experience. And if one is saved solely on the basis of justification by faith, then the new birth must be part of justification.
In my previous editorial I was unable to cover every point in detail, and therefore I did not clearly explain the relationship of the new birth to justification.
The new birth is not a qualification for heaven! Nowhere does the Bible say that a person gets to heaven on the basis of the new birth experience. Then what did Jesus mean when he told Nicodemus that unless a person was born again he or she would not see the kingdom of heaven?
When we seek to describe and explain what happens in salvation, we must be careful to avoid the trap of making salvation a linear process. The elements in salvation need to be described in some order, but that does not mean that they follow in sequential fashion. For example, if we are to ride a bicycle successfully, we must distinguish be tween the front and back wheels. If we separate them, we no longer have a bicycle. The wheels are a unit, but with different functions.
Justification and sanctification are like the front and back wheels of the bicycle. You cannot separate them. He or she whom God justifies, He also sanctifies. But that does not make justification and sanctification the same thing.
Paul makes it clear in Romans 4 that it was not any experience or change in Abra ham that justified him. In fact, Paul stresses that God's justification is effective even while people are wicked (verse 5).
Paul says that "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Rom. 10:13, NIV). Individuals separated from God recognize that they need a power outside of themselves to do for them what they cannot do themselves. The Holy Spirit has been working on their heart. They reach out by faith and say "God save me; help my unbelief." At that moment two things happen simultaneously: God declares those persons righteous on the basis of Christ's perfect life and death, and at the same moment He brings about the new birth experience. They now have the will to work toward the perfection they now have in Christ but do not have in themselves. God wants them to be come in reality what they have been declared to be in Jesus. While the work of Christ for them is perfect and complete, the work of Christ in them is never fully completed in this life.
The key element here is choice. If people choose to depend completely on Jesus Christ, they are justified. That is how they have the assurance of salvation. They don't have to ask "How converted do I have to be?" All they have to ask is "Have I chosen Jesus Christ as my Saviour?" To lose that salvation, they have to make a conscious choice to withdraw their decision to depend alone on Christ.
Let us return to the bicycle analogy. The front wheel is justification; the back wheel is sanctification, which includes the new birth. Just as you can't have a bicycle without two wheels, so no one will enter heaven without being both justified and sanctified. But just as the front and back wheels have different functions, so justification and sanctification have different functions. Justification (the work of Christ for me) is always the basis of my salvation, while sanctification (the work of Christ in me) is the result of my salvation.
They cannot be separated, but they must be distinguished if we are to avoid the confusion over the basis of salvation.
