Doves On Distant Oaks

Becoming Christ-like

Throughout the Bible, there are numerous verses that show our path to final salvation is a three-step process. These three words are used often: justification, sanctification, and glorification. The first and last are more singular events, while the middle one is a bit harder to understand because it is both a condition and a process.

Justification is a legal term that occurs when we are judged before God to be righteous or not. We are justified when we are made righteous in the eyes of God. Before Christ came, Jewish law dictated righteousness, so devotion to the law brought justification before God. However, there was a substantial cultural shift when Christ came because He redefined this understanding.

Christ was obedient to God, suffered and died for our sins, and thus made available to us the choice to believe what God has done through Christ as saving grace. Faith became more important than the Law in order to be justified. But in order to be justified, we need to believe. At the time we do, we are justified—judged to be innocent of our sins.

Once we are justified we begin sanctification. We become set apart from other men. We're different. We have a different goal in life—to become as close to Christ as we possibly can. That's our condition. But Sanctification goes beyond just wanting to become Christ-like, it involves actually taking the steps toward that goal. It's a process of growth, whereby we become more Christ-like every day, so that when we do become glorified, we are as similar to Christ as is humanly possible.

The process of sanctification involves Bible study, prayer, gaining more knowledge of Christ, and obeying God in all we do. In doing so, we develop every day to become more like Christ, our adopted brother. It's the continuing work of the Holy Spirit within us. Most of the time its long and slow, and at times it can be painful. But all growth spurts are like that.

Glorification, the third and final step, is something that hasn't happened yet. It will occur at the time of Christ's return, when all those both alive and dead in Christ will rise to heaven to be with their Lord. They will be given a new, glorified body.

Salvation is available to every single person on the face of the Earth, in whatever age they lived or will live. However, we must choose it in order to begin the 3-step journey toward ultimate salvation. If you have never done so, please make that choice now.

Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

– 2 Corinthians 3:17-1818

Keywords: Justification, Sanctification, Glorification

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