Already Glorified
I recently saw a pamphlet that described 3 steps to salvation. The pamphlet talked about salvation as saved, being saved, and will be saved as part of our spiritual life. And, of course, this all takes much time and great discipline.
I'm sure the thief on the cross would have appreciated these 3 steps very much. Unfortunately, he only had a couple of hours to become very spiritual, so he lost out. Stephen too. He got stoned to death before he had put in the time required to really form Christ in himself.
Of course, I say these things mixed with sarcasm. But one verse that George really messed up was this one in Romans.
"Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Romans 8:30).
George could not live with this verse as written, so he altered it. He would live with the first three parts being in the past tense, but the glorified part didn't fit with his theology.
How could we be already glorified when his whole teaching centered on having to work really hard to be found worthy of glorification? His teaching that we are all children but not all sons did not fit in with a theology that said that God already saw "all" whom he predestinated as called, justified and glorified!
As there are those now who simply cannot accept salvation as a "gift", there are also those who cannot accept that everything in the Christian life is a gift, including glorification. There just has to be something that we "work" for.
And when you believe that "time plus commitment equals spirituality", what will be the obvious result? A life filled with meetings, prayer towers, all nights of prayer and every conceivable minute used for this "commitment and time" so that we may become more spiritual. And that indeed was and is the Assembly.
Thank God we are "saved unto good works" not by our works. We are already clean before God. Saying Psalm 51 over and over and over again will not make us more clean or more holy in the eyes of God. To teach in any way that you can become more saved than one is the moment they receive Christ is not biblical. "It is finished" is all-encompassing and all-consuming.
