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Life is?? #89 Understanding Salvation
(My Unusual Road of Life....)
** The Bible is abundantly clear on this issue: eternal salvation is only obtained by believing the message of the gospel. **
Date: 7/14/2017 8:32:05 AM ( 7 y ago)
Chapter 2.
Understanding Salvation -
The Way of Salvation
What is salvation?
What does it mean to be saved?
The answers to our questions must begin here.
The best way to know if something is false is to diligently study that which is true. People who work for our government in discovering counterfeit currency are masters at knowing and recognizing true, genuine currency. They are so familiar with real money that counterfeit money is easily recognized. It is the same with the true gospel. Let's remember, there is no issue that is more important in the world, because it is through the true gospel that people are delivered from an eternity in Hell to an eternity in Heaven. This is an issue that affects a person forever. Once a person has died, it is too late for him to change his mind.
The verb "save" means, in its simplest form, "to deliver." As a noun, salvation means "deliverance."
The Old Scofield Study Bible states: "The Hebrew and Greek words for salvation imply the ideas of deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Salvation is the great inclusive word of the gospel, gathering into itself all the redemptive acts and processes: as justification, redemption, grace, propitiation, imputation, forgiveness, sanctification, and glorification."
When we think of the issue of becoming a Christian, we are talking about salvation, or deliverance, from sin and its penalty of death and eternal damnation. It is being saved from conscious torment in a literal Hell for all eternity. It is also being saved to an eternity with God in Heaven.
But how does a person obtain eternal salvation?
Is it through faithfulness to God's principles of morality? Is it by keeping His commandments?
Is it through hard work, good deeds, and perseverance?
Is it through the sacraments or ordinances of a certain religion?
Is it through struggling to live a godly life in an ungodly world?
The Bible is abundantly clear on this issue: eternal salvation is only obtained by believing the message of the gospel. The gospel is the good news that Christ died for our sins and rose again, and that all who trust in Him as their Savior receive everlasting life the moment they believe. Paul said,
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:16-17).
In the Book of Acts Paul and Silas were put in prison for preaching this very gospel and delivering a woman from a demon. They were taken into custody, beaten and thrown into prison. Let's pick up the story in Acts 16:25.
"And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:25-31).
Paul and Silas had a perfect opportunity to tell the Philippian jailer the way of salvation when he asked them what he needed to do to be saved. They could have told him anything. What they told him was the clear and simple truth: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Believe and be saved. They either told him the truth or they did not. There can be no in-between. They gave him a clear and simple answer. There was no mistaking what they meant because the jailer trusted Christ, just as they told him he needed to do. When he believed, God saved him.
Jesus shared the same truth with Nicodemus the Pharisee in John 3. Nicodemus came seeking the truth. The Lord told him how to be born again in clear and simple terms.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:16-18).
The condition is to believe, and the promise from God the Son is that, if you believe, you will receive everlasting life. Jesus either told Nicodemus the truth or He did not. There can be no in-between.
The Gospel of John states 98 times that the condition for receiving salvation is by believing. To say, as some might say, that Jesus did not tell him the complete truth, is to insinuate that Jesus misled Nicodemus and gave him a false hope. In essence, this would be calling Jesus a cruel and deceitful person. That is blasphemy! He is and was the sinless and perfect Son of God.
Let us look at this another way: can a person go to Heaven on John 3:16 or not? If a person will put their trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, will God save them at that point in time and give them everlasting life or not? Yes or No?
Jesus could not have been clearer when He declared in John 6,
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47).
If you believe, you will have, at that very moment, everlasting life. Jesus was either telling the truth or He was not. We need to stop for a moment and let that sink into our minds!
No verses in the Bible explain the terms of salvation any clearer than Ephesians 2:8-9. And so let's take a close look at them.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
A. For by grace are ye saved. Grace is unmerited favor or kindness. It is not something we deserve because of something we do. Grace is "a favor done without expectation of return; the absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God to men, finding its only motive in the bounty and benevolence of the Giver; unearned and unmerited favor."
We are saved, literally, have been saved, or delivered by God's grace, His unmerited kindness and favor. He saves us, however, based on the work of Christ on the cross.
God's justice and holiness had to be satisfied. Our sins had to be paid for. Jesus paid the price on Calvary by shedding His blood and making the full payment necessary to provide for us salvation as a gift (Romans 6:23).
Make no mistake about it, a terrible price had to be paid. The glorious truth is that it has been paid! Jesus, after hanging on the cross and paying the price for our sins, exclaimed from the cross,
"It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost" (John 19:30).
"It is finished". The payment for sin has been paid in full. There is nothing left for us to pay for. The debt has been taken care of. The work has been done. He died as our substitute and paid for OUR sins, so that we would not have to. Three days later He literally came back from the dead. The Bible says,
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10).
Jesus was the propitiation, the satisfactory payment, for our sins. He satisfied the justice required by the Father. Sin had to be paid for, and the Son paid it in full. All we can do is believe, or trust, in Christ as the One Who did that for us personally. The moment we do, we are given everlasting life.
B. Through faith. When we simply believe or trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, as the One who paid for all of our sin, God saves us. The Greek word for "faith" is pistis. Faith is not simply believing something historically, it is personally trusting something or someone. It is having full confidence in the promise of God. The Old Scofield Study Bible says,
"For salvation, faith is personal trust, apart from meritorious works, in the Lord Jesus Christ, as delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification."
One of the clearest illustrations and explanations of faith in someone's life is seen in the life of Abraham as recorded in Romans chapter 4. Abraham and Sarah had been promised that God would give them a son in their old age. Of course that son was Isaac. However, they had a problem. Their bodies were past the age of having children. In order for them to have that child, God had to work a miracle, and He did. It was Abraham's response to God's promise that so beautifully illustrates faith. In referring to Abraham the Bible says,
"Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform" (Romans 4:18-21).
God tells us in verse 21 what faith is all about. It is being fully persuaded that what God has promised He is also able to perform. Abraham had to put his confidence in what God had said. Faith is having full confidence in what God has said.
As pertaining to salvation, God has promised in His Word that all those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their personal Savior will receive eternal life from God. They will receive salvation.
When I sit down on a chair, I am fully depending on that chair to hold me up. It is the same with salvation. When we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are depending on Him to save us. In the context of salvation, we need to believe what the Bible says about Jesus Christ and the payment He made on our behalf.
C. And that not of yourselves. Salvation is not something that we achieve. It does not come from us. That would be contrary to grace by nature. Grace is unmerited. Salvation is not of ourselves. God is the One who does the work and saves. Salvation has to do with God providing for us His righteousness. Our righteousness is of no value, it is no better than filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Thus, the good news of the gospel offers to us the righteousness of God as our solution, not something of ourselves.
"For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).
A.T. Robertson gives clear commentary on Ephesians 2:8 when he explains: "And that (kai touto). Neuter, not feminine tautē, and so refers not to pistis (feminine) or to charis (feminine also), but to the act of being saved by grace conditioned on faith on our part. Paul shows that salvation does not have its source (ex humōn, out of you) in men, but from God. Besides, it is God's gift (dōron) and not the result of our work."
D. It is the gift of God. The word "gift" simply means a present. This could not be any clearer. The word "gift" here refers back to salvation. Gifts are free. We merely receive them. Paul makes it clear in Romans when he states,
"But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many" (Romans 5:15).
"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).
Did you notice verse 15 of Romans 5?
It is as if the Lord knew that some theologians down through the ages would try to redefine the word "gift" as something other than what it is. Therefore, the Bible clearly states "free" in the text. Let it be stated again, all gifts are free. If they are not free, then they are not gifts. The Bible is abundantly clear that salvation is a gift!
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
Some today object to this biblical fact by calling it "cheap grace." But that is inventing a new theological concept that is nowhere found in Scripture. This is treading on very dangerous ground. The Bible knows nothing of "cheap grace." Not one verse in the entire Bible speaks of "cheap grace." Our salvation cost our Heavenly Father the very life of His only begotten Son! It is free to us, not because it is cheap, but because the blood of Christ paid the debt in full!
"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:" (1 Peter 1:18-19).
This truth of the unfathomable grace of God is so accurately summed up in one of our great hymns of the faith.
Grace Greater Than Our Sin
Verse 1
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
Verse 3
Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe;
You that are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?
Chorus
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.
This is nothing less than amazing grace! Ephesians 2:9 is therefore the logical truth that follows:
E. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Because we cannot do any good work as lost people to please God; because we can never be as righteous as God (and that is what we need); because we could never pay for our own sin except by spending forever in Hell; because Christ did the work for us, IT IS NOT OF WORKS. This excludes anything man can do in an effort to be acceptable before God.
"Where is boasting then?
It is excluded. By what law?
of works?
Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (Romans 3:27-28).
Please notice: we are justified by faith without, or apart from, the deeds of the law.
It is not by mixing faith and works, but by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It is faith alone that God is looking for on our part. That is the only acceptable response for sinners who are guilty, condemned, helpless, and disqualified. Consider the following verses,
"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5). (italics added)
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" (Titus 3:5).
What could be clearer? It is by GRACE. It is through FAITH. It is NOT OF OURSELVES. It is the GIFT OF GOD. It is NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST.
Secure Forever: God's Promise or Our Perseverance?.
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