"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

Some have said that to be “justified” is to be “just as if I’d never sinned.” But the truth is justification deals completely with the fact that I HAVE sinned. God being just, His justification has to have a just basis. When Paul wrote in Romans 8, “It is God that justifies,” he immediately followed with “it is Christ that died.” The death of a sinless Substitute for sin is necessary for God to justify a sinner. Justification is clearly an act of God. He declared all His people as having been “justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” All in Him are now without sin, but justification does not excuse sin or in any way diminish its vileness and offensiveness to God. No, justification declares the sinner righteous and also declares the Justifier as righteous. —preacher Gary Shepard

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." -II Corinthians 3:18 [KJV] When our desires and affections ascend to where the Lord Jesus Christ now is, when raised out of all the smoke and fog, din and strife, noise and bustle, cares and anxieties, pursuits and pleasures, sins and sorrows of this earthly scene, we can in faith and hope, in love and affection, live above and beyond all things here below, and beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, "are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" —this is being made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. When the Lord Jesus went up on high He entered into His glory. As then we behold Him in His glory in faith and love, there is the reflection of His glory, and saints thus favoured enter into heaven when still upon earth, and...

"For a testament is of force after men are dead; otherwise it is of no strength at all whilst the testator liveth." -Hebrews 9:17 [KJV] Precious Lord Jesus! and was it needful that Thou shouldest die, that the rich legacies of Thy will might be paid Thy children, and Thy spouse, the church? Was the testament in Thy blood of no force until Thou hadst finished redemption by expiring on the cross And hast Thou now confirmed the whole, by this gracious act of Thine, when dying "the just for the unjust, to bring us to God ? " Sit down, my soul, this evening, and ponder over the unequalled love of thy dear Redeemer. Jesus died, and thereby gave validity and efficacy to His will. Now therefore it is of force.  Now the large estate of "an inheritance, incorruptible, and undefiled, and which fadeth not away , " which Jesus hath purchased by His blood, is eternally and everlastingly secured. Yea, the will hath since His death, been proved in the court ...