TO GOD POTENTIALITY IS REALITY.

Man is beginning to be saved. Man is in the process of being saved. Man is finally saved. You may have heard of one or more of these phrases. They all point to a facet of the great salvation plan God has given to mankind. They may be helpful, but I admit they leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. More importantly, they leave a sour taste in the Bible’s mouth. Though not expressed, and probably not meant, these phrases connote the idea that salvation is a process that one goes through. Like a race, salvation begins, it continues on and it finishes. In most endeavors of life this is the pattern of any human scheme. We have a plan, we put it into action, we run with it, and we hope we shall complete it. It rests on man’s ability to persevere. It also rests on man’s potential. The prize is there, but now the aptitudes must be engaged to their highest degree in order to seize the prize. In human endeavors, especially in a free society, achieving one’s potential is everything.

We use the word potential to connote the idea that when someone with inherent natural abilities applies himself he shall find success. His giftedness comes from God but the consistent honing and shaping of those gifts come from him. To achieve his potential any person must be willing to give it all for the goal. This intangible attribute we call self-discipline. Conjoin God’s granting the potential and man’s achieving it and you end up with a winning combination that can move mountains. That is the way most of humanity and a good portion of Christianity look at salvation. The groundwork and foundation are laid by God but it is up to the Christian to build the structure, that is, to realize one’s full potential in salvation. Salvation is a cooperative process about tapping into God’s gifts and achieving one’s spiritual potential. The word potential, however, is not and can never be a part of God’s vocabulary. What He decrees must de facto happen. There is never a case where God must live up to His potential. If salvation belongs to God then there is no potentiality in it. For example, one could never argue that the creation was God’s maximizing His creative potential to bring all things into being. This implies that there was the possibility God may have fallen short of His potential and failed. It also argues that there are degrees of potential in God. But the Bible says that God is simple; that he is whole in every way, with no possibility to increase or decrease. All of God is all He will eternally be. In creation God simply spoke and it was done; no ‘possibility,’ no ‘probability,’ no ‘potential’ - just ‘done.’ In God’s mind what we call potential is for Him another word for reality. If one takes this into the realm of salvation it has shivering implications. God never offers salvation as a potential achievement for the creature. God never looks at any individual and says, “I see the potential in you, thus I will give you the building blocks of salvation which you can piece together.” The problem is that the Bible teaches that man in His native state has NO potential to do anything to improve his spiritual lot. To have potential something must be alive. But the Bible says that in spiritual things man is completely dead. Let’s say it this way, if God sees any potential in anyone it is because God Himself has supplied all the potential and executed that potential perfectly. In other words God doesn’t potentially do anything. He simply acts. Potential to God is reality. More correctly, if there is any potential in this scheme of salvation, all the potentiality is found in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He not only has infinite potential but He possesses a complete and unhindered realization of that potential… in His very nature. “Of all that the Father has given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day.” There is no unfulfilled potentiality here. What Christ purposes to do He does. The possibility of Jesus failing is a non-sensical statement. But in saying this there is a real objection. It seems as if the Bible teaches, that in the salvation event, much is left up to the creature. Sanctification, to be exact, is described as man’s striving to be like Christ; his fighting the good fight of faith; his entering the narrow gate, etc. Doesn’t this imply that man has a potential to achieve a certain level of sanctification if he would only live up to that potential? Doesn’t that mean that Christ has bequeathed a salvation that can potentially succeed or fail?

From a human standpoint this appears to be so. Now most Christians would agree that certain aspects of man’s salvation are rooted in God’s inviolable decree. When God justifies and God glorifies He simply declares and nothing can change that. In these aspects most agree there is no human potential. It’s in that in-between facet of salvation where things get sticky. We call it sanctification or the Christian life. Doesn’t the Bible teach that we must work up to the level of the grace that God has given us (see 2 Peter 1:5-8)? Doesn’t that imply we must live up to our spiritual potential? Doesn’t this imply that salvation exists in time and that there must be progress in that endeavor? The fallacy of this kind of thinking is that it puts salvation under the watchful eye of time. It implies that salvation is a process; it begins; it continues; it ends. We as humans must look at salvation this way for man is bound to look at everything in time. We forget, however, that God sees not salvation that way. To God salvation is one overarching reality. He stands outside of time. He decrees the salvation of His people according divine fiat. And it is finished… at once. No element of process, no idea of time, no movement of progress. This means that the man who is being sanctified (I speak as a man) is not in God’s mind on a journey. He is already sanctified in the decree - fully and completely. In fact he is just as sanctified as he is justified. There is no progress when God fully declares something to be so. Progress is the fodder of evolution not of a Creator God. No, the moment God decrees salvation for anyone that person is completely, totally, unchangeably saved, justified, sanctified and glorified. He is as sure of heaven before he is born as when he stands at the pearly gates and hears the words ‘job well done.’ Paul said to the Ephesians that they were quickened (past tense) together with Christ, raised (past tense) together with Him, and seated (past tense) together in heavenly places in Christ (2:5-6). In other words all the events of their salvation had already taken place in eternity past. So when God seems to describe salvation under the language of time, it is merely for our benefit. We see salvation in stages because we see everything in stages. God sees only salvation. Throughout the church age there have been unhealthy attempts to divide up salvation into constituent parts. This can be helpful for time-bound minds. But often these descriptions do more harm than good. To imply that salvation runs in stages implies that the salvation event may be stopped or hindered at any time along the continuum especially when one fails to live up to his potential. Some very orthodox men in our day have tried to harmonize this tension by asserting that God saves at justification, is saving at sanctification and finally saves at glorification. The problem is that to the human ear this sounds eerily similar to an Arminian or New Perspectives on Paul approach where salvation is continually analyzed during the ongoing process of sanctification or fully recognized at glorification. That lends itself to some deep confusion. In God’s mind, there is no beginning and no end of salvation. A man is simply saved because God decreed it. And the only proof needed that this salvation is a reality is by one’s faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of God and the sole way of redemption. Isn’t this what the Bible clearly teaches? There can be no ‘beginning salvation,’ no ‘continuing salvation,’ no ‘final salvation.’ The golden chain of salvation in Romans 8:29-30 makes this abundantly clear. Salvation does not start at one point and then continue on to its terminus. Salvation is an integrated whole, a comprehensive decree from beginning to end. One could point to any link in that chain and argue salvation from that one link. If a man is pre-destined, he is justified, and he is glorified. If a man is called, he is foreknown of God. The chain does not move forward from one event to the next. It is simply a chain, a whole, beautiful, integrated chain. What holds it together is the divine purpose.

What a comfort this is to the Christian! He or she is saved. Period. And that salvation is grounded in one simple, everlasting covenant of the creator God, a covenant between the Father, Son and Spirit made in eternity past. Knowing this, the Christian is secure. He does not look around to see where he might break the chain or, if at the end of time, he will be found wanting at the judgment seat. He is not saved because he is progressing. He is saved because God declared Him to be saved and no force in heaven or hell can undermine that decree. Salvation is, therefore, one grand, integrated work. It is to be looked at as one whole masterpiece of beauty, just as one might admire the Mona Lisa from a distance. How this impacts the believer is profound. If God has saved me before the foundation of the world by uniting me to His Son, then there is nothing in heaven or hell that can separate me from that salvation. Justification by faith is merely the entrance point for the believer into this glorious salvation. But justification no more saves a man than foreknowledge saves a man or glorification saves a man. They are all eternal parts of one grand design. What saves a man is God, pure and simple. When God decrees salvation for any man you may take that entire glorious package to the bank, even if parts of it have not yet been played out in time. Man is saved fully and comprehensively. No man is saved potentially or conditionally. It is wrong to say that a man is saved in God’s decree but only finally saved at the end. That implies salvation is a process that can be broken somewhere along the line. This theology has generated darts of doubt which have killed the assurance of thousands. God saves, period. He said it was so, believer, and so it must ever be. In this truth the Christian can rest his weary soul and freely serve that God who has effected ‘so great salvation.’