The past part of salvation is called justification. (Rom 3:25 NIV) "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--"

The present part of salvation is called sanctification - (1 Cor 1:18 NIV) "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

The future part of salvation is called glorification. (Rom 5:9-10 NIV) "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!"

It is the part of salvation that we need for living TODAY.

As such it is vital because the choices we make each day creates right relationships with our fellow man and with God. If we make the right choices today we will have peace in our personal lives. If we make right choices today we will avoid the results of bad choices. I use the word "choices" because it is the current buzzword in education. But in education we can only discourage choices that will mess up our lives and encourage choices that will make us productive human beings.

When God is in our lives we get special help in these choices. When the Gospel is guiding our lives we have a special perspective on our fellow man that gives us the ability to have a Christ-like relationship with other human beings and gives us a special relationship with God. We have a new power to make right choices.

Sanctification - the statement of the doctrine from our "Statement of Beliefs"

It's like teaching about electricity. I can say I understand how to wire this room to make the switch turn on the lights. I can explain it because I can do it. But when I teach electricity in physics class the words understand and explain are too strong. I don't know what electric current is because I didn't make electrons. I can only tell what current is like. I might say electric current is like water flowing in a pipe. I like to use the word describe; "I don't understand what electricity is; I can only describe it."

In the same way, sanctification is God with us in some way directing our daily choices. I can't understand that because I didn't set up that process. I can only describe it.

We keep the Lord's supper annually and this ceremony does not include the letter of the Old Testament Passover.

We used to keep the Feast of Tabernacles as a required observance, but we did not keep it according to the letter of the Old Testament. Most of the customs of the Feast of Tabernacles (e.g. living in motels, keeping it at many sites worldwide) are modern WCG creations.

If we have read the Bible at all, we know some of the famous teaching of Jesus - for example, the Sermon of the Mount.

C. S. Lewis says it well: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us no come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." (Mere Christianity , C. S. Lewis, p. 56 c. 1952 Macmillan Publishing Co. c. renewed 1980 by Arthur Owen Barfield)

(Heb 1:1-3 NIV) In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, {2} but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. {3} The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, [what is God like?] sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

We might think that if God appeared to us in a physical way and spoke to us, we would do what he said. The Bible doesn't bear that out. Consider how effective God was in getting Adam and Eve to do what His will in the garden of Eden. As comedian Bill Cosby quipped, "God had trouble with is kids, too!"

The special way that God spoke to us is by the act of Jesus dying for our sins. That is emphasized over and over again in the epistles, while words of Christ are not cited. If you have a read letter Bible you don't see any red letters in the epistles!

(John 14:9-21 NIV) "Jesus answered: 'Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? {10} Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. {11} Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves...{16} And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- {17} the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ...{20} On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you."

God promises his mind. We can't explain any further than this how it happens. But we are promised God help in thinking like God.

A relationship is much more effective than rules.

Which is more effective for producing a happy marriage, the commandment "Thou shalt not commit adultery" or the teaching of Eph 5:25 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,"

Consider

We pretty much know what is good behavior is so we are not lacking in laws. What we need is a relationship with God.