I just ran to a local pharmacy on the side of a dusty road to pick up some antibiotics. I didn’t need a doctor’s note or anything, just a couple bucks and I had a full round of antibiotics in my hand.

A unique characteristic of antibiotics is that they are taken as a course, rather than a one-time dose. But one thing that is puzzling is how this life saving medicine can be more harmful than good if the patient doesn’t take the full course over an extent of time. Diseases can build up resistance against the medicine which would be bad for the individual, but also for others around them who could catch a more resistant strand of bacteria.

Because of this knowledge we tend to take it seriously in the States– no one gets antibiotics without a prescription.

I can’t help but see the similarities in this truth and how we ‘administer’ the gospel in the region of Asia that we live in. Is the gospel not a saving agent that should be used in its proper order? In the Word, salvation is most often seen as a course, a straight and narrow path to move forward upon.

We tout “once saved always saved” and what a blessed truth to know nothing can separate us from the love of God! But sometimes we focus too much on the once and always, and so little on what it means to be saved. What do we make of sanctification, the process of becoming like Christ and growing?

Can someone be saved if they do not have the power of God’s Spirit working through sanctification? Let me ask it a different way: Is a man considered saved if he has no part in justification? Can a woman be considered saved if she has no inheritance of glorification?

I think we answer boldly, ‘no!’. For who would say, “I’m saved but my sins are not forgiven,” or, “I’m saved but I shall not inherit eternal life.” Now then, can anyone be considered saved, if they have no part in sanctification? If there is no part in being changed into the likeness of Christ? If there is no hunger for the Word? No fruit cultivated by the Spirit of God?

Let me be clear-  I do not discredit the criminal on the cross; I couldn’t! Nor any other person saved at the end of their days. They may have only had hours, if not minutes or seconds, and I do not pretend to understand the working of sanctification in these quick moments. But for those of us who have time on this earth, to abide in the vine and allow the vinedresser to bring forth fruit, we can’t miss this beautiful, glorifying, and joyful part of our salvation through sanctification.

Salvation is a course. Justification is instantaneous but salvation is a course. It was made as such not by man’s hands but by God’s perfect wisdom and delight. All too often our purposes in evangelism and outreach are done with an instantaneous approach. We care much for a “sinners prayer” and little for seeing it through till the end.

Imagine if a doctor would go to lands where an outbreak occurred and throw out tablets of antibiotics by the handful, without instruction. They are freely given, yet without the full counsel of its application and how to use it. We would cry “foul!” Yet we do the same thing when we give a dose to the lost; and perhaps we have a plan for the future, but spend so little time in doing it. We must walk with them to see that they have the full course…the full counsel of God (Acts 20:27)!

My purpose in writing this, is not so that we would question our salvation, my purpose is to consider this in regards to our approach to ministry here on the other side of the world. In the Great Commission we are commanded to not only evangelize, but to “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” We’re commanded to not just give out the tablet (teach what it means to be saved), but to give instruction on how to take it (teach what it means to live and abide in Christ for the rest of our days). Fulfilling the Great Commission requires a long-term work! It requires years of language and culture study, it requires us to move and to change our schedules, it requires sacrifice and hardship, all for the joy of seeing a people group come to know, love & live for their Savior.