The most glorious moment for every believer is the first time they enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ and surrender their life to His Lordship by proclaiming Him as their savior. But it can often feel like that life-altering "sinner's prayer" made no impact whatsoever in our lives.
Many new Christians misunderstand rebirth into the kingdom of God as an experience where we see a white blinding light, have scales fall from our eyes and receive a new name from God. The bad news is: That kind of transformation only happened once in the Bible (Acts 9:1-17). It doesn't happen to all Christians.
After we are born again into the life Christ has given us, a wonderful thing happens: We are brought from death to life. But why is it that we still feel "dead" after we come to Christ? Why do old sin patterns remain and why do struggles still manifest?
2 Corinthians 5:17 says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." The Bible refers to a spiritual transformation where we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and are saved from our sin, however, we are tripartite beings in the sense that we exist not just as spirit, but as spirit, soul and body.
While our spirits are resurrected -- it was dead prior to allowing Jesus and the cross to bring it back to life -- our bodies and souls still feel the adverse effects of the spiritual deadness that we and our ancestors once walked in.
Justification, sanctification and glorification
To understand the work of the grace and sacrifice of Jesus in our lives, we must understand the difference between justification, sanctification and glorification.
Justification happens when we surrender our hearts to God and allow the work of Christ to set us free from sin. At that moment, our sins -- past, present and future -- are washed away, and we are made whole and righteous in the eyes of God through Christ's sacrifice.
But that doesn't mean that we stop sinning altogether overnight. As we are justified, God brings forth a process of sanctification where we are slowly cut off from the occurrence of sin, healing both the soul and body. This, too, is a work of the grace of God. Titus 2:12 teaches us the grace of God that trains us to renounce ungodliness.
And then there is glorification, which is our assurance of a future completely free from sin in all of our parts --- spirit, soul and body. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 speaks of this when it says, "Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed."
God has worked to set us free and continues to work to set us free from sin. While we do not become perfect overnight, the day will come when we will be alive in spirit, soul and body for the rest of eternity.
