Three Highly Important Spheres of Salvation

"For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus [reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, ready to be used] for good works, which God prepared [for us] beforehand [taking paths which He set], so that we would walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us]."
(Ephesians 2:10, The Amplified Bible)


Starting a building project or any project for that matter begins with a plan. Building websites requires careful consideration and planning on paper. I recently saw the plan for a house on paper; it looked so detailed and had all the dimensions to the minutest inch. There is then the laying of the foundation, which requires painstaking effort. And then the building comes on top of the foundation. Finally, the owner enters the building to reside in it.

Your salvation is the most important thing in the world because God paid the highest, inestimable and incalculable price for it: the life of His Son Jesus Christ. Understanding and living out this salvation is so vital for every child of God. Salvation is first received by confessing that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9).

Looking carefully at the analogy of the building, you can identify that salvation can be seen as a building. Your salvation is God's project. That's why you are His workmanship.

I want to share with you three highly important spheres of salvation viz.:

1. You have been saved
2. You are being saved
3. You will be saved

Now, let's typify this with the building:

1. The plan on paper
2. The process of building
3. The completion of the building

Please pay close attention to the following message because it is very key to your vital experience of the life that Christ has made available to us through his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, enthronement and expected return.

First of all, let's have a look at the three parts of the human person. The Bible says, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [that is, separate you from profane and vulgar things, make you pure and whole and undamaged—consecrated to Him—set apart for His purpose]; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete and [be found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23, AMP). As an individual, God created you as a spirit being, possessing a soul and living in a physical body. 

Paralleling these three with the three highly important spheres, you will realize the following:

1. You have been saved- this deals with your spirit.

He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but because of His own compassion and mercy, by the cleansing of the new birth (spiritual transformation, regeneration) and renewing by the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5, AMP)

2. You are being saved- this deals with your soul.

So get rid of all uncleanness and all that remains of wickedness, and with a humble spirit receive the word [of God] which is implanted [actually rooted in your heart], which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21, AMP)

3. You will be saved- this deals with your body.

For we know that if the earthly tent [our physical body] which is our house is torn down [through death], we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our [immortal, eternal] celestial dwelling, so that by putting it on we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened [often weighed down, oppressed], not that we want to be unclothed [separated by death from the body], but to be clothed, so that what is mortal [the body] will be swallowed up by life [after the resurrection]. (2 Corinthians 5:1-4, AMP)

So when you were born again, your spirit was saved; your spirit is the real you. The Holy Spirit came to indwell you and make you a new person. After your new birth, a new process of continual growth and transformation began to the end that you would be conformed into the image of Christ. We now eagerly look forward to being clothed with our glorified bodies, just like Jesus! Hallelujah!

At creation, God formed the man's body first (the conceptual framework), then he breathed into him the breath of life. However, we see that the order for the new creation is different: God first regenerated our spirits (the conceptual framework). Right there, we understand that God's salvation is a working from the inside out. God starts His work from your spirit. When you were born again, it was your spirit that was born again. Your spirit needed the quickening power of the Holy Spirit: And you [He made alive when you] were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of your transgressions and sins, (Ephesians 2:1, AMP)

I would like to break down the three spheres for you.

YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED

The Bible says that we are the sons of God NOW! (1 John 3:1) It also states that we are like Jesus on earth as He is today (1 John 4:17). Now, that's a very lofty thought! To say that we are like Jesus is to say that we bear His character, power, goodness, love and divinity! And it's utterly true! That's why the fruit of the spirit are in us (Galatians 5:22-23). I once shared a series on the nine features of the recreated human spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit in you is the clearest evidence that you are saved, because He has made your spirit alive unto God. When you were not born again, your spirit was dead unto God, and so you could not respond to God. You were lost. You did not have life in you, even though you were physically alive. But thank God for Jesus! Through His death, resurrection and ascension, you now have access into God's Presence by His Spirit. 

The fruit of the Spirit are features of your heavenly nature. Each of the fruit of the spirit are actually in you. You may protest, "I'm not a gentle person at all." Well, that's because, it's in your spirit, and not in your soul or your body. If it's going to manifest in any of these areas, you would have to put the Word of God to work by doing what it says, speaking it and relying on the Holy Spirit through prayer. Why are so many Christians fearful and enslaved by sin? Simply because they have not seen the reality in their spirits. The Bible says we walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). It says that you do not have a spirit of fear! So why are you still scared of witches and the night? You need to believe the Truth! The truth is that you do not a have a Spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7).

There are countless realities that are spoken of concerning you in the Word of God. For example, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]."

Having been born again, you are not a bad person trying to be good; you are a totally new person discovering and manifesting who you are on the inside! That leads me into the second sphere of salvation.

But before I get there, I need you to understand that when Jesus purchased you with His blood, He did not purchase only your spirit. He bought ALL of you. So, He bought the totality of your being: soul, spirit and body!: Christ purchased our freedom and redeemed us from the curse of the Law and its condemnation by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs [crucified] on a tree (cross)” (Galatians 3:13) Therefore, ALL of you belongs to Him.

YOU ARE BEING SAVED

Salvation is more than being delivered from going to Hell! It's about our union with Christ and an ongoing eternal relationship with God the Father through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Every waking day is another opportunity to know God more, become more like Him and turn many to righteousness. "Wait!" you say, "Didn't we see that we are like Him, so how do we then say that we are becoming more like Him." Alright, 2 Corinthians 3:18 puts it perfectly: "And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit."

There is a correlation between this text and James 1:19-25. We are transformed into the image of Christ as we look into the mirror of God, which is His Word. The Word of God is His mirror given to us to have a look at who we are on the inside: His children. You cannot really know your identity in Christ until you see it revealed through the Word of God. This is one of the reasons the Holy Spirit is in your life: to reveal to you the things which are freely given to you by God (1 Corinthians 2:12). 

Recall that we established that the being saved deals with your soul. Thus, it is your soul that is being saved right now. God's overarching passion and obsession right now is to get you to come into the image of Christ: "For those whom He foreknew [and loved and chose beforehand], He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son [and ultimately share in His complete sanctification], so that He would be the firstborn [the most beloved and honored] among many believers." (Romans 8:29, AMP)

That's why receiving salvation is not all there is to Christianity. Receiving Christ into your life is not an end in itself. Rather, it's the beginning of an excitingly adventurous relationship with Jesus! It is a journey of faith. You don't receive Christ and just stop there. You must continue in Him: "Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in [union with] Him [reflecting His character in the things you do and say—living lives that lead others away from sin], 7 having been deeply rooted [in Him] and now being continually built up in Him and [becoming increasingly more] established [a]in your faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing in it with gratitude." (Colossians 2:6-7, AMP)

Have you read that you must work our your own salvation with fear and trembling?(Philippians 2:12) Your salvation that has been given to you is a gift that must be explored. You ought to work out what is already inside you. That's why I spoke about the fruit of the spirit. They are inside you but you must develop them. You must put them to work. You must put your faith to work. Use your words to create the life of victory God has already given to you. You cannot live your life anyhow. You have a responsibility to reach out to the lost. You cannot live selfishly, because you have been called to live a life of love.

Here are seven key things that contribute to the salvation of your soul:

1. Abstaining from sensual urges (see 1 Peter 2:11)
2. Receiving the engrafted Word by going to Church (see James 1:19; Ephesians 4:11-16; 2 Corinthians 3:18)
3. Renewing your mind daily with the Word (see Romans 12:2)
4. Fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit through Prayer (see John 15:1-8)
5. Guarding your heart and thinking on the right things (see Proverbs 4:23; Philippians 4:6-8)
6. Set your mind on things above (see Colossians 3:1-5)
7. Seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness first (see Matthew 6:33)

YOU WILL BE SAVED

When Jesus was raised from the dead, He had a glorified body. We also look forward to being clothed with our glorified bodies at the resurrection. That is when our bodies will be saved from the corruption that is in this world: "...We know that when He comes and is revealed, we will [as His children] be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is [in all His glory]." (1 John 3:2)

The Bible declares, "Now I say this, believers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit nor be part of the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable (mortal) inherit the imperishable (immortal). Listen very carefully, I tell you a mystery [a secret truth decreed by God and previously hidden, but now revealed]; we will not all sleep [in death], but we will all be [completely] changed [wondrously transformed], in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at [the sound of] the last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead [who believed in Christ] will be raised imperishable, and we will be [completely] changed [wondrously transformed]. For this perishable [part of us] must put on the imperishable [nature], and this mortal [part of us that is capable of dying] must put on immortality [which is freedom from death]. And when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the Scripture will be fulfilled that says, “Death is swallowed up in victory (vanquished forever). O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin [by which it brings death] is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory [as conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ."

(1 Corinthians 15:50-57).