Salvation: The Result

Salvation: The Result A Christian Is a Butterfly in the State of a Caterpillar
Justification is instantaneous; sanctification is a long growth. Justification is the act of God whereby He takes a man who is dead in trespasses and sins and says, "I create within you the new life of Christ and now I look upon you and see you just as perfect as I see the Lord Jesus Christ."
Justification is the act of God whereby he declares an ungodly man to be perfect while he is still ungodly. It is as extraordinary a thing as if you were able to say that the caterpillar is really a beautiful butterfly. "Oh," you say, "but it isn't! It still looks like a caterpillar." Well, that is exactly what God does with us. He comes to us in our "caterpillar status" and declares us to be "butterflies."
In reality, that is what happens in nature, too; that caterpillar does become a butterfly. For God has given us this remarkable picture of metamorphosis-that which goes into the cocoon as a worm comes out as a butterfly, for it lives part of its life in one state and part in another. We call this process metamorphosis. It is very interesting to note the Greek word used in Romans 12:2 : "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed (metamorphosed) by the renewing of your mind." The Human Tiger
A French explorer was crossing Africa from the Zambezi and came into the region of the Barotsi people. He had heard stories about the native king Lewanika, whose greatest delight had been to put to death, by newly invented tortures, those who offended him. He was also known as the "human tiger."
This French officer came to the station where Pastor Coillard was in charge, and the pastor himself, a Frenchman, entertained him kindly. Then came Sunday. The French officer was absolutely without God, but as a matter of politeness he went to church and sat through the service. When he came out he said, "Monsieur Coillard, who was that remarkable looking man sitting next to me, who listened so carefully?" That was King Lewanika, the 'human tiger.'" "Was it?" "Yes." "Then if that is what Christ can do, I mean to be His."

Light Reveals
A young woman asked me to tell her in a few words how she could know if she was really a Christian. I said: "If you are a Christian you are not afraid of the light because you live in it. You no longer run after sin, though it may run after you. When you belong to Christ, you will find it difficult to sin; but when you belong to Satan you will find it easy. You belong to the one whom you truly long to please." The Truth Is Dynamite
A. W. Tozer says: "The truth received in power shifts the basis of life from Adam to Christ, and a new set of motives goes to work within the soul. A new and different Spirit enters the personality and makes the believing man new in every department of his being. His interests shift from things external to things eternal, from things on earth to things in heaven. He loses faith in the soundness of external values; he sees clearly the deceptiveness of outward appearances; his love for and confidence in the unseen and eternal world become stronger as his experience widens.... The gulf between theory and practice is so great as to be terrifying.... Wherever the Word comes without power, its essential content is missed." A New Stomach
One time a former drunkard was praising God for taking away all his appetite for liquor. A physician argued with him, saying that he would have to have a new stomach in order to have the appetite for liquor removed. "Praise God!" said the former drunkard. "I knew I had a new heart, but this is the first time I knew I had a new stomach!" "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

New Creatures in Christ
Queen Victoria once paid a visit to a paper mill. The foreman showed her and her attendant over the works without knowing who his distinguished visitor was. She finally went into the rag-sorting shop where men were employed in picking out the rags from the refuse of the city. Upon inquiring what was done with this dirty mass of rags, she was told that, sorted out, it would make the finest white paper. After her departure, the foreman found out who it was that had paid the visit. Some time later, Her Majesty received a package of the most delicate white stationery having the Queen's likeness for a watermark, with the intimation that it was made from the dirty rags she had inspected. That illustrates Christ's work in us. He takes us, filthy as we are, and makes us into new creatures. Receiving Christ is becoming Christ's. After receiving Him, we are as different from what we were before as pure white paper is from the filthy rags from which it was made.

Made Spotless
Dr. Guthrie, attending a school gathering in a slum area, followed a speaker who had referred to poor neglected children as "the scum of society." This roused the indignation of Dr. Guthrie. Taking a clean sheet of paper and holding it up, he said, "Yes, this was the scum of society once, only filthy rags, but they can be cleansed and made into spotless white paper on which you may write the name of God." So it is with a believer in Christ. A Heartfelt Experience
Somebody was asked how he knew that he was converted. "Why, bless your heart," was the answer, "I was there when it happened!" When Jesus Christ comes into our hearts, we know it, and others will, too. His Perfect Salvation
Someone has said, "The Redeemer who loved us from eternity and formed us for Himself will not leave the pining soul to the secondhand tinkering of others. He will closet us in with Himself." I believe God longs to give to each of us a perfect personal assurance of His perfect salvation. Yet how few seem to realize this as David Brainerd did. In his diary he wrote: "My discourse was suited to my own case, for of late I have found a great want of apprehension of divine grace and have often been greatly distressed in my soul because I did not suitably apprehend this fountain open to purge away sin, and so I've had to be laboring for spiritual life and peace of conscience in my own strength; but now God showed me in some measure the arm of strength and fountain of all grace. But do I hear someone say, can He meet me at the point of my need? Let me tell you that He absolutely can." The Heart a Better Interpreter
That great English preacher, Joseph Parker, once said, "The divinity of the Son of God is not proved merely in proportions. I think that he who believes in the divinity of Christ has all history, etymology, and philosophy on his side. My dependence is not founded upon the construction of a phrase or the mood and tense of a verb, and yet we have nothing to fear from that side. I rely upon His moral reach and spiritual compass. When He touched my soul into life, I did not call for a Greek grammar, Hebrew lexicon, or volumes of encyclopedias, to find how the thing stood. I believe because 'once I was blind, and now I see.' The heart is sometimes a better interpreter than the understanding. What better proof do I want? 'He has redeemed my life from destruction.' "

Second Birth
A preacher was asked, "Where were you born?" "I was born in Dublin and Liverpool," he replied. The man with whom he was conversing thought there was some misunderstanding. "How can a man be born in two places at once?" he asked. But the preacher meant that he had been born in the flesh in Dublin and born again in the spirit in Liverpool. The second birth is just as definite an experience as the first. With the first birth man becomes a creature of God; with the second he becomes a child of God.

Seeing the Gospel
A missionary approached a native whom he had not seen before and asked, "Have you ever heard the gospel?" "No," he replied, "but I have seen it. I know a man who used to be the terror of the neighborhood. He was a bad opium smoker and as dangerous as a wild beast. But he became completely changed. He is now gentle and good and has left off opium."

Mystery of Salvation
A psychiatrist who visited a rescue mission listened intently to the testimonies of many converts. The superintendent asked him if he would like to say a word. This is what he said: "Tonight I have been given an opportunity to observe something I did not know existed anywhere. It has been my privilege to listen to the testimony of men who were glad to witness to what Christ had done for them. I know nothing about that, but I confess I cannot otherwise explain what has taken place in their lives. A few of these men I recognize. As drunkards, even as dope addicts, some of them have come under my observation at the hospital. But here they are, alive, well-dressed, delivered, and in their right minds. I do not know how the miracle has been wrought, but of one thing I am confident-nothing in science can account for this change in them. That kind of gospel is worth preaching to anyone, anywhere." The End of a Quest
Justin Martyr, one of the early Church Fathers, started out in his youth on a search for the highest wisdom. He tried a stoic, who told him that his search was vain. He turned to a second philosopher, whose greed for money quenched any hope of assistance from him. He appealed to a third, who required a preliminary knowledge of music, astronomy, and geometry. Just think of a soul thirsting after God and pardon and peace, being told, "You can't have any of this until you've got a college degree." How many would be shut out from God's presence! In his helplessness, Justin Martyr applied to a follower of Plato, under whose guidance he began to have some hope that he was on the right track. But one day, when earnestly groping after the truth, he was met by a nameless old man who talked to him about Jesus Christ. Immediately he felt he was at the end of his quest. "Straightway," says Justin, "a flame was kindled in my soul," and if not in the actual words, yet in the spirit he sang,
"Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find."

Standing in the Lord's Shoes
A poor, uneducated old woman was once met by a skeptic. "Well, Betty, you are one of the saints, are you? Pray what sort of folks are they? What do you know about religion?" "Well, well," replied the old woman, "you know, sir, I'm no scholar, so can't say much for the meaning of it; I only know I am 'saved by grace' and that's enough to make me happy here, and I expect to go to heaven by and by." "Oh, that's all, is it? But surely you can tell us something more than that. What does being saved feel like?" "Why, it feels to me," said that Spirit-taught one, "just as if the Lord stood in my shoes, and I stood in His." The Light Within
An old sculptor had among other pieces of work in his shop the model of a beautiful cathedral. It was covered with the dust of years, and nobody admired it, although it was an exact model of a fine cathedral, inside and out. One day the attendant placed a light inside the model, and its gleam shone through the beautiful stained-glass windows. Then all stopped to admire its beauty. The change that was brought by the light within was marvelous.

Victory over All Sins
To a pastor's study one day came a young man from a good family. He was in the depths of despair and confessed that he had practiced the most loathsome sins. He hated his own body, the instrument of his shame. He wanted to die, and would have put an end to his life if he could have been sure that death ended all. The pastor, in recounting this incident, said that he shuddered to think of what would have been the result of that interview if he had not been able, on the authority of God's Word, to call him to repentance and conversion in Christ, and to assure him of a gift of power that can give victory over all sins. One genuine experience of Christ is worth more than all the arguments of a pagan philosophy. The Willing Slave
During the time when slave trade was still practiced in some parts of the South, a handsome young man was up for sale. The bids kept rising. Finally, an Englishman gained possession. The young slave began to chide him, "Ha, you buy a slave when slavery has already been abolished in England." The purchaser, however, said, "I have bought you to set you free." The young slave, overcome with emotion, replied, "I will be your willing slave forever."

Fruit of the Spirit
A missionary teacher tells of a Japanese woman who asked her if only beautiful girls were accepted by her school. "Why no," she replied, "We take all the girls who come to us." "But," continued the woman, "all your girls seem to be very beautiful." "That's because we teach them the value of their souls in God's sight," explained the teacher, "and this makes their faces lovely." "Well," said the woman, "I don't want my daughter to become a Christian, but I would like to send her to your school to get that look on her face."

Spiritual Resurrection
"Oh, how many things I would have to give up!" said a sinner who was wondering whether to receive Christ or not. "So many things I do now I would no longer be able to do." "Don't be afraid," an experienced Christian told him. "Even now aren't there things you can't do? For instance, can you eat dirt?" "No, of course not," was the reply. "I don't even want to eat dirt."
"This is exactly what will happen when Christ begins His life in you," said his friend. "The sin that you now desire you will not want at all."

Proof-A Changed Life!
A changed life is an indisputable argument. Zeno, the subtle Greek philosopher was once trying to show that there is no such thing as motion; upon which Diogenes simply got up and walked about! So when cynics sneer at Christianity and say it is all a lot of nonsense, the best way to refute them is to produce the evidence of a changed life. The Christian's Riches
John Bunyan wrote: The happy man was born in the city of Regeneration, in the parish of Repentance unto Life. He was educated in the School of Obedience; he works at the trade of Diligence and does many jobs of self-denial. He owns a large estate in the country of Christian Contentment and wears the plain garments of humility. He breakfasts every morning on spiritual prayer and sups every evening on the same. He also has "meat to eat that the world knows not of." He has gospel submission in his conduct, due order in his affection, sound peace in his conscience, sanctifying love in his soul, real divinity in his breast, true humility in his heart, the Redeemer's yoke on his neck, the world under his feet, and a crown of glory over his head. In order to obtain this, he prays fervently, works abundantly, redeems his time, guards his sense, loves Christ, and longs for glory.