Arthur W. Pink on Salvation, Justification and Sanctification

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I remembered some members of the "Easy Christianity" crowd say that Arthur W. Pink is in Hell for teaching works salvation without considering the full context of what he taught.  If Pink taught salvation by works, he would have not written that wonderful classic "Eternal Security".  I am afraid that so many people today prefer to have salvation without any sanctification, they want to believe that it's possible for a person to be saved but not be transformed and when I ask them how is that possible, they quote a few verses and get defensive.  When God saves a person, that is the beginning and not the end and remember, God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called. 

When God saves the person, He does not merely save them but they are saved from their sins (Matthew 1:21).  When one teaches that it's possible to get saved but have no change and still live like a devil is contrary to what the Bible teaches.  While salvation is by grace through faith but true grace results to a transformation.  Ephesians 2:10 and Titus 2:11-14 does not teach God's grace is a license to sin but gives the power to overcome sin.  I am afraid that "Easy Christians" have severely misquoted Ephesians 2:8-9 to justify their heresy that a person can remain stagnant and still be the same after salvation.

1 Corinthians 6:11 is no justification to sinful living because it also mentions that the Holy Spirit sanctifies the believer.  Before they were saved they were unrighteous and unfit to even enter God's Kingdom because of their fallen state.  But after they were saved, they were justified and sanctified which means to be set apart from God.  After God declares the person justified, He does not stop there because He sanctifies them after they are declared righteous.  When that righteousness is imputed into the person, it does not mean that the person can rejoice to have a license to sin.  No true Christian would even think of the moment that because they are saved that they have God's permission to sin.  Romans 4:5 is definitely not permission to sin because if it was, Romans 3:31 would be a lie saying that the Law is fulfilled by the faith of the believer.

When the person gets saved, the Holy Spirit is within them.  John 16:8-9 says that the Holy Spirit reproves of sin.  Hebrews 12:5-7 says that whom God saves He also chastises making it impossible for the saved person to live like the rest of the world.  If anybody even bothers to teach that the Holy Spirit does not rebuke of sin and sanctify the person, that person is a deluded Antinomian.  If salvation by works is a sure road to no salvation then so is believing in a salvation that does not result to sanctification by God's grace.  Good works and perseverance happen as the effects and never the causes of the saints' salvation and preservation.  James 2:14-26 warns that faith that does not result to works is dead.  In short, when faith is authentic it is bound to produce good works because it is alive and not dead.


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