PERSONAL SALVATION: ITS STAGES Titus 2:11: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men.”

The term “salvation” is sometimes used in its widest application, including the whole work of saving grace, from its inception in pardon to its consummation in glory. Then, it is sometimes used to define the different states of grace; as when it is said of the converted soul, “It is saved;” proof the believer who has experienced full salvation, “He is fully saved;” or when one dies in holy triumph, “He is forever saved.” In each of the above cases, “saved” is used to define only apart and not the whole of recovery from sin. Complete recovery from sin is reached by three distinctive stages: 1 . Partial salvation . The sinner hears the gospel, is awakened, turns to God, forsakes his sins, bows at the Cross, believes on the Son, and joyfully exclaims: “Hallelujah ‘tis done, I am saved by the blood of the Crucified One.” He obtains pardon, the renewal of his nature, adoption into the divine family, and the witness of the Holy Spirit that he is accepted in thee Beloved. He is saved; the kingdom of God is implanted in his soul, in its threefold power — glory of righteousness, peace and joy, and the Holy Ghost. He is saved from the condemnation of the law, the displeasure of God, and the death penalty of sin. What a glorious salvation! But it is partial; it is not the whole. It is the beginning, and not the consummation.

Partial salvation, consisting of pardon, regeneration, adoption, and assurance, is the chief cornerstone in the superstructure of Christian experience. It has the twofold glory of taking precedence in order of time in the progress of salvation, and the pre-eminence that, without it, the work is not begun and can not be consummated. 2 . Perfect salvation . The child of God, having experienced partial salvation, which brings peace with God, soon begins to discover in his heart, under the light of adoption and the illuminations of the Holy Spirit, providing he maintains his justified relation and is rightly instructed, peculiar tendencies to evil, inclinations to envy, jealousy, ill-will, pride, ambition, worldliness, self-indulgence, ease; inordinate affection for lawful things, and carnal desires for sensual things; peculiar disinclinations to spiritual things; a disrelish for holy activities; an aversion often to prayer, to Christian conversation, to reading God’s Word, and the means of grace; peculiar weakness in the presence of temptations, duties and trials, accompanied with distressful doubts. fears, and clouds, — all these originating an interior unrest and turmoil of soul, oft eventuating in frequent lapses into sin, repeated heart-wanderings, painful inconsistencies, dreadful discouragements, and spiritual dissatisfaction when he begins to cry out, “O, wretched man that I am!” Then, if he be properly instructed by his spiritual leaders, he will come to discern that his unsatisfactory experience arises from the existence of inbred sin in the soul, which was not removed when the guilt of sin was canceled and the new spiritual life was imparted in conversion. Now, being taught that there is a fountain open for sin and the uncleanness of sin, as well as for its guilt, he steps by faith into the crimson tide, is made free from sin in his soul, is filled with love, and the days of his mourning are past. He is fully saved. 3 . Final salvation . The believer, having been fully saved, is now fitted to war a good warfare, to run with patience the race of Christian life, and to do good as he has opportunity. He will have contests with the adversary, struggles with temptations and sorrows; he will have duties to perform and crosses to bear; for from none of these things does full salvation free him.

But at last, having through faith glorified God in body and spirit, his release will come. The plaudit, “Well done!” will be given him. He will enter the heavenly rest forever saved from the presence of sin. This is final salvation — eternal redemption.

By this method of progress in salvation — first partial, then perfect, and lastly final salvation — has every ransomed soul reached the crown it wears and the palm it waves before the throne. A circumstances like this occurred in Central Ohio years ago. A lady was in decline from consumption, which is so fatal in that climate. She was hastening rapidly to the grave. She was pronounced to be in the last stage of the disease. When she heard of a physician who thought he had found a treatment for this disease, which would arrest its progress, even in that climate and when far advanced, she sent for him, and put herself under his care. He promised her that within thirty days she would be on the healthward side of life, if she would follow the treatment. She did so, and in thirty days was able to quit her bed — a surprise to herself and friends. That was her partial salvation physically.

The disease was arrested; her decline had ceased; she had passed from the death side to the life side. But said her physician to her: “This is only the arrest of the death-tendency of your case. The disease-tendency is still with you. You are not cured, but you are saved from the grave. Now, if you will pursue a slightly changed form of treatment for sixty days, you will be saved from your disease, as well as from the grave.” She followed his treatment for sixty days, and, sure enough, was cured, as will be seen further on. That was her full salvation physically. The seed of disease had been expelled from her body, and she was indeed made whole. But said her physician: “This is a very changeful climate, and many of the conditions conduce to pulmonary diseases, and you have a constitutional susceptibility to such diseases. Now, if you will remove to Southern California or Colorado, you will never die of consumption. The mild, genial air and uniform temperature of those regions will protect you from a recurrence of this disease.” She went to Colorado; years have gone, and she still lives, a blessing to her home and the Church. That was her final salvation physically. Under the Colorado skies linger no foul malarias, and there blow no fierce winds to superinduce consumption. What a parable of the soul’s recovery from sin! The poor sinner comes to the Great Physician of souls, accepts the balm of his precious blood, and finds its pardon; it arrests the death-tendency of sill, and is restored to Divine favor, and escapes the death that never dies. This is partial salvation. But the disease of Sin remains still. Soon it begins to war against the new life, and the new given peace of the soul. He goes again to the Great Physician, and finds the same balm of Calvary efficacious “To save from wrath, and make him pure.” And lo! he is made whole. This is perfect salvation. Now he lives; lives to God; lives victorious over sin, notwithstanding his own susceptibility to evil, and the moral malarias and infectious air of this present world; and so lives, “Till the Lord in glory come, And Soon or late translates to his eternal home,” when he passes to the Colorado of the skies, saved by the power of all endless life. This is final salvation.