This week I am pulling in some highlights from chapter 6 of Coekin's excellent book, The Reluctant Evangelist: Moving From Can't and Don't to Can and Do. 

A few key takeaways that are worth noting for you: 

There is a biblical order to our salvation. 

• God predestined and elected many sinners for salvation; then

• He sent Jesus to die for us on the cross; next

• He sent someone to explain to us what he has done in his gospel; through which

• His Spirit called and regenerated us to respond with repentant faith; and then

• God justified and adopted us as his children; so that

• We start praying with joyful gratitude (63-64)

Further notes from this chapter:

"Holiness is not just an absence of evil but the presence of evangelistic love, and above all theologically in realising that we have been saved for a purpose." (66)

"Sometimes [we] are tempted back into the filth of our old lives and return to the squalor of our old lifestyle, Jesus keeps coming back to lead us out of the filth in repentance. Until one day, he will finally lead us out for good and take us to heaven, closing the door of sin behind us forever." (69)