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I. The complete salvation of God in the book of Romans is carried out on and brought into the believers of Christ by the power of God through His complete gospel — 1:16, 1.
II. Such a complete salvation of God is composed of:
А. God’s judicial redemption, accomplished by the death of Christ (5:10a), including:
1. God’s forgiveness of the believers’ sins — 4:7.
2. God’s justification of the believers — 3:24.
3. God’s reconciliation of the believers to Himself — 5:11.
B. God’s organic salvation, carried out by Christ’s life (v. 10b), including:
1. Regeneration — Titus 3:5.
2. Sanctification — Rom. 6:19, 22; 15:16.
3. Renewing — 12:2b.
4. Transformation — v. 2b.
5. Conformation — 8:29.
6. Glorification — v. 30.
III. This dynamic complete salvation of God is:
А. Taking the all-inclusive Christ of God as its centrality and universality — 1:3.
B. Based upon God’s righteousness (v. 17a), which is Christ:
1. To cover the believers that they may be justified objectively — 3:20-22.
2. And to be given to the believers as their righteousness subjectively to become their living so that they may be justified before God subjectively — 4:24-25.
C. Through the believers’ faith (1:17b; 10:8), which is Christ (Gal. 2:20b), whom they appreciate and receive in their hearing of the gospel.
IV. God’s judicial redemption is covered by the first four chapters of the book, and God’s organic salvation is covered by the last twelve chapters, from chapter 5 to chapter 16.
The burden of this crystallization-study on the complete salvation of God in Romans can be summarized with the following four statements:
(1) God’s complete salvation is based upon His righteousness and through our faith.
(2) By the two divine transfers: out of Adam into Christ and out of the flesh into the Spirit.
(3) In the one spiritual union of the Spirit of life with our spirit, forming a mingled spirit.
(4) For us to reign in life by the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness.
I hope that our entire being with our living will be occupied by these four statements, which are actually one long sentence.
The complete salvation of God in the book of Romans is carried out on and brought into the believers of Christ by the power of God through His complete gospel (1:16, 1). Power of God in Romans 1:16 denotes a powerful force that can break through any obstacle. This power is the resurrected Christ Himself, who is the life-giving Spirit, and it is unto salvation to everyone who believes.
The gospel of God, as the subject of Romans, concerns Christ as the Spirit living within the believers after His resurrection. This is higher and more subjective than what is presented in the Gospels, which concerns Christ only in the flesh as He lived among His disciples after His incarnation but before His death and resurrection. This book, however, reveals that Christ has resurrected and has become the life-giving Spirit (8:9-10). He is no longer merely the Christ outside the believers, but He is now the Christ within them. Hence, the gospel in this book is the gospel of the One who is now indwelling His believers as their subjective Savior.
Such a complete salvation of God is composed of God’s judicial redemption and His organic salvation. God’s judicial redemption is the procedure of God’s complete salvation for the believers to participate in God’s organic salvation as the purpose of God’s complete salvation. The procedure is judicial, and the purpose is organic.
God’s judicial redemption, accomplished by the death of Christ (5:10a), includes the following items.
Forgiveness of sins (4:7) is based on the redemption of Christ, which was accomplished through His death (Acts 10:43; Eph. 1:7; 1 Cor. 15:3); it is the initial and basic blessing of God’s full salvation.
Justification (Rom. 3:24) is God’s action whereby He approves people according to His standard of righteousness. God can do this on the basis of the redemption of Christ.
Propitiation and forgiveness of sins are adequate for a sinner but not for an enemy. An enemy needs reconciliation (5:11), which includes propitiation and forgiveness but goes further, even to resolving the conflict between two parties. Our being reconciled to God is based on Christ’s redemption and was accomplished through God’s justification (3:24; 2 Cor. 5:18-19). Reconciliation is the result of being justified out of faith.
God’s organic salvation is carried out by Christ’s life (Rom. 5:10b) and includes the following items.
Regeneration in Titus 3:5 refers to a change from one state to another. Being born again is the commencing of this change. The washing of regeneration begins with our being born again and continues with the renewing of the Holy Spirit as the process of God’s new creation, a process that makes us a new man. It is a kind of reconditioning, remaking, or remodeling, with life.
Sanctification (Rom. 6:19, 22; 15:16) involves not only a change in position; it involves a transformation in disposition, that is, a transformation from the natural disposition to a spiritual one by Christ as the life-giving Spirit saturating all the inward parts of our being with God’s nature of holiness.
To be renewed (12:2b) means that a new element is wrought into our being. This produces an inward metabolic transformation, making us suitable for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Transformation is the inward, metabolic process in which God works to spread His divine life and nature throughout every part of our being, particularly our soul, bringing Christ and His riches into our being as our new element and causing our old, natural element to be gradually discharged.
Conformation (8:29), the end result of transformation, includes the changing of our inward essence and nature and also the changing of our outward form, that we may match the glorified image of Christ, the God-man.
Glorification (v. 30) is the step in God’s complete salvation in which God will completely saturate our body of sin, which is of death and is mortal (6:6; 7:24; 8:11), with the glory of His life and nature according to the principle of His regenerating our spirit through the Spirit. In this way He will transfigure our body, conforming it to the resurrected, glorious body of His Son (Phil. 3:21). This is the ultimate step in God’s complete salvation, wherein God obtains a full expression, which will ultimately be manifested in the New Jerusalem in the coming age.
Romans is full of Christ. Many expositions of Romans divide it into sections: condemnation, justification, sanctification, selection, and Christian behavior. But this way of exposition is not adequate. It is only by taking the all-inclusive Christ as the center and circumference of the entire book that our exposition can be thoroughly adequate. Christ is the centrality and universality of the entire book of Romans.
God’s complete salvation is based upon God’s righteousness (1:17a), which is Christ. God’s righteousness is a great matter because it is the power of God’s salvation. God’s righteousness, which is solid and steadfast, is the foundation of His throne (Psa. 89:14) and the base on which His kingdom is built (Rom. 14:17). If there were no righteousness, God Himself would be finished, the universe would collapse, and we could not exist. The universe, including us, exists based on the righteousness of God.
Christ covers the believers that they may be justified objectively (3:20-22). The best robe (Luke 15:22) put upon the prodigal son by the father signifies Christ as the God-satisfying righteousness to cover the penitent sinner (Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor. 1:30; cf. Isa. 61:10; Zech. 3:4).
Christ is given to the believers as their righteousness subjectively to become their living so that they may be justified before God subjectively (Rom. 4:24-25). As the resurrected One, Christ is in us to live for us a life that can be justified by God and that is always acceptable to God.
God’s righteousness is Christ, and the believers’ faith (1:17b; 10:8) is also Christ (Gal. 2:20b), whom they appreciate and receive in their hearing of the gospel. The more we hear the gospel concerning Christ, the more we appreciate Him, and the more we receive Him. The more we say, “O Lord Jesus, I love You. I appreciate You,” the more He enters into us to be our faith. Faith has an object, and it issues from its object. The object is Jesus, who is God incarnate. When man hears Him, knows Him, appreciates Him, and treasures Him, He causes faith to be generated in man, enabling man to believe in Him. Thus, He becomes the faith in man by which man believes in Him. This faith becomes the faith in Him, and it is also the faith that belongs to Him. We have no righteousness or faith in ourselves. The righteousness of God is Christ, and the faith in us is also Christ.
God’s judicial redemption is covered by the first four chapters of the book of Romans, and God’s organic salvation is covered by the last twelve chapters, from chapter 5 to chapter 16. This organic salvation equals reigning in life by the abundance of God’s grace and by the abundance of God’s gift of righteousness.
Romans 5:10 points out that God’s full salvation revealed in this book consists of two sections: one section is the redemption accomplished for us by Christ’s death, and the other section is the saving afforded us by Christ’s life. The first four chapters of this book discourse comprehensively regarding the redemption accomplished by Christ’s death, whereas the last twelve chapters speak in detail concerning the salvation afforded by Christ’s life. Before 5:11 Paul shows us that we are saved because we have been redeemed, justified, and reconciled to God. However, we have not yet been saved to the extent of being sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of God’s Son. Redemption, justification, and reconciliation, which are accomplished outside of us by the death of Christ, redeem us objectively. Objective redemption redeems us positionally from condemnation and eternal punishment; subjective salvation saves us dispositionally from our old man, our self, and our natural life.
