Salvation
of God
DEFINITION OF SALVATION: (from Latin: salvatio, from salva, 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, salvation generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its consequences. *
* https:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Salvation
INTRODUCTION
SOURCE OF SALVATION: MERCY
Daniel 9:9 (ESV) To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him.
1 Tim 1:15-16 (NIV) … Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience …
MERCY
Napoleon had a practice of sending out troops to hunt down deserters. The captured men would be executed. On one occasion, a captured run-away awaiting death happened to be his own cook’s son. The old woman came before the general pleading for the life of her son.
Napoleon replied that justice demanded death. “But I don’t ask for justice,” the mother explained. “I plead for mercy.” “But your son does not deserve mercy,” Napoleon replied.
“Sir,” the woman cried, “it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for.” The emperor was so touched by the astute response of the mother that he pardoned the soldier.
SOURCE OF SALVATION: GRACE
Titus 2:11 (ESV) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.
Salvation is a gift given by grace.
Eph 2:8 (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God
MERCY is God not giving us what we deserve (punishment).
GRACE goes further than MERCY. It is God then giving us what we do not deserve (unmerited favour and blessing).
MERCY & GRACE
MERCY & GRACE
In the dictionary, mercy is the compassion and kindness shown to someone whom it is in one's power to punish or harm. It is an act meant to relieve someone of their suffering.
Grace, on the other hand, is defined as courteous goodwill. Meaning it's not asked for nor deserved but is freely given.
MERCY & GRACE
The Prodigal Son came back to his father to ask for mercy.
His father not only gave him mercy by forgiving him, he extended grace by throwing a party for his penitent son, gives him the best robe, puts a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
MERCY & GRACE
The prodigal begs to be made a servant – instead he is reinstated as a son.
God does the same for us. He not only withholds just punishment for the repentant sinner (mercy); he gives many blessings that come with his grace and makes us his children.
LAW & GRACE
Grace is the distinguishing feature of the New Covenant:
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 1:16-17 (ESV) For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
4 BLESSINGS OF GRACE
All 4 blessings of GRACE were procured by the atoning death of Christ and the virtues of that death are imparted to man by the Holy Spirit.
JUSTIFICATION: Forgiven
REGENERATION: Born again – New life in Christ
SANCTIFICATION: Progressively becoming more Christ-like
GLORIFICATION: the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed
Salvation operates both externally and internally.
EXTERNAL & INTERNAL
EXTERNAL
INTERNAL
Grace
Atoning work of Christ
Work of Holy Spirit
Justification
Righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers i.e. it is treated as if it were theirs through faith
Righteousness is imparted - gift given at the moment of new birth enabling a Christian to strive for holiness
Regeneration
Adoption - We receive the privilege of Divine sonship
New life – we are born again and become partakers of the Divine nature
Glorification
A new glorified body
A sinless nature
Sanctification
Separation from sin
Purification from sin
4 ASPECTS OF SALVATION
JUSTIFICATION: As satisfying the claims of the law, the atonement secured our pardon and righteousness.
REGENERATION: Born again (an event), suddenly we truly start to see things differently.
SANCTIFICATION: A lifelong process, Christ living within us should be reflected, and increasingly clear to others.
GLORIFICATION: the culmination of salvation and our final blessed and abiding state.
BORN
BORN AGAIN
Born as a baby into a human family
Justified, Regenerated (Born again into God’s family)
Progressive Sanctification
Progressive growing to mature adult
4 ASPECTS OF SALVATION
JUSTIFICATION: Eph 1:7 (NKJV) In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins…
REGENERATION: 2 Cor 5:17 (NKJV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
SANCTIFICATION: 1 Pet 1:15 (NIV) But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do
GLORIFICATION: Rom 8:30 (NIV) … those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
THE PENALTY OF SIN AND THE POWER OF SIN
Justification
Declared not guilty
Regeneration
Born/ Adopted into God’s family
Sanctification
Growing to be more Christ-like
Glorification
Perfected
Free from POWER
OF SIN
Free from PENALTY
OF SIN
CONDITIONS OF SALVATION
Mark 1:15 (ESV) … and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
The conditions for salvation are:
Repentance (turn your back on your sinful life)
Faith (believe that Christ has atoned for your sin)
Water baptism is the outward symbol of the convert’s inner faith.
Acts 2:38 (ESV) And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Repentance is “the true sorrow for sin, with sincere effort to forsake it” or “being sorry enough to quit”.
There are 3 elements to repentance (a) Intellectual, (b) Emotional and (c) Practical.
Intellectual: A traveller learns that he is on the wrong train.
1. REPENTANCE
1. REPENTANCE
Emotional: The traveller is disturbed at the discovery.
2 Cor 7:10 (NIV) Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret…
It is not enough to realise that you are on the wrong train and to be sorry about it – you’ll still get to the wrong destination.
1. REPENTANCE
Practical: He leaves the train at the first opportunity and boards the right train.
Matt 3:8 (NIV) Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
Faith is both objective and subjective.
Faith sometimes denotes not only the act of believing a certain body of truth, but the entire body of truth itself - objective faith:
“preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy” (Gal 1:23)
“shall depart from the faith” (1 Tim 4:1)
“the word of faith, which we preach” (Rom 10:8)
“the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3)
The act of believing these truths is subjective faith.
2. FAITH
2. FAITH
Faith means belief and trust.
Intellectual faith means the acknowledgement that the gospel facts are true.
Intellectual faith (in the mind only) is not enough.
James 2:19 (NIV) You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.
2. FAITH
Belief in the heart is essential. Heart faith means the willing dedication of one’s life to the obligations which those facts involve.
Rom 10:9 (ESV) because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
OBJECT OF FAITH
Faith always has an object – i.e. that which you put your faith in.
In order for faith to be of any value, you
must have a worthy object for your faith.
True Biblical faith has Jesus as it’s object.
SALVATION:
2 Tim 3:14 (NIV) …
salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus.
And the ‘saving faith’ is
specifically in Jesus’ sacrifice:
Rom 3:25 (NIV) God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood…
OBJECT OF FAITH
JUSTIFICATION: Rom 3:26 (NIV) … the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
REGENERATION: Gal 3:26 (NIV) You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus…
SANCTIFICATION: Jesus speaks of “those who are sanctified by faith in me.” (Acts 26:18, NIV)
GLORIFICATION: 2 Thess 1:4-5 (NIV) … we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.
BLESSINGS OF GRACE
JUSTIFICATION: Forgiven
REGENERATION: Born again – New life in Christ
SANCTIFICATION: Becoming Christ-like
GLORIFICATION: the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed
NECESSITY FOR JUSTIFICATION
The word justification is a judicial term meaning to acquit.
Why do we need justification?
NECESSITY FOR JUSTIFICATION
The Gentile (pagans, without the Law) are under condemnation.
Rom 1:21-23,32 (NIV) For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles … Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things
deserve death, they not
only continue to do these
very things but also
approve of those who
practice them.
NECESSITY FOR JUSTIFICATION
But the Jews (who are under the Law) are also condemned because no one can completely keep the Law.
Rom 2:17,25 (NIV) Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God… Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.
Rom 3:9 (NIV) …
Jews and Gentiles
alike are all under
the power of sin.
NECESSITY FOR JUSTIFICATION
In fact, all men are condemned.
Rom 3:10 (NIV) As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one …”
Rom 3:23 (NKJV) for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
PURPOSE OF THE LAW
IF WE’RE ALL GUILTY, HOW CAN THE LAW HELP US? While the Law is good, it cannot save us, because of our sinful nature:
Rom 8:3 (NIV) For what the law was
powerless to do in that it was
weakened by the sinful nature,
God did by sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful
man to be a sin offering…
The Law in itself has no saving
power any more than a
thermometer has power to
bring down the fever which it
registers.
PURPOSE OF THE LAW
Unfortunately, the Jews came to exalt the Law as a means of salvation based on merit for the keeping of its precepts and the traditions added to it.
Rom 10:3 (NKJV) For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
They had misunderstood the purpose of the Law. They had come to trust in it as a means of spiritual salvation; ignoring the inherent sinfulness of their hearts, they imagined that they would be saved by the keeping of the letter of the Law.
Thus when Christ came offering them salvation from their sins they thought they had no need of such a Messiah.
John 8:32-34 (NIV) Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
PURPOSE OF THE LAW
They thought he would prescribe some rigid requirement for eternal life. And they were unwilling to follow the way he indicated.
John 6:28-29 (NIV) Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
PURPOSE OF THE LAW
In making a journey, a train is a means to an end. We have no intention of making our home on the train – we are simply concerned with reaching our destination. When we reach the end of our journey we leave the train.
The Law was given to Israel to lead them to a destination and that end was trust in God’s saving grace. But when the Redeemer came, they acted like a man who refuses to leave the train when the destination has been reached, even though the conductor assures them that it is “the end of the line”. The Jews refused to move from their seats in the Old Covenant “train” although the New Covenant assured them that Christ is the “end of the Law”.
Rom 10:4 (NKJV) For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
BUT WE REALLY HAVE ARRIVED!
PURPOSE OF THE LAW
What then is the purpose of the Law?
The law makes us conscious of sin:
Rom 3:20 (NIV) Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Rom 7:7 (NIV) What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
PURPOSE OF THE LAW
The Law leads us to Christ.
Gal 3:24 (NKJV) Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:24 (KJV) Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION
Q:
How can God treat a sinner as a righteous person?
A:
God provides him with righteousness. The ground of justification is Christ’ righteousness.
Q:
But is it just to give the title of “good” and “righteous” to one who has not earned it?
A:
Jesus earned it for and on behalf of the sinner, who is declared righteous “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”.
GROUND OF JUSTIFICATION
Redemption means complete deliverance by a price paid.
Since man naturally lacks righteousness, it must be provided for him. It must be an imputed righteousness.
This righteousness was purchased by Christ’s substitutionary death.
3) Christ’s righteousness
to man
1) Adam’s
sin to man
2) Man’s sin to Christ
3 IMPUTATIONS
FAITH IS THE MEANS OF JUSTIFICATION
Phil 3:9 (NKJV) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith
Justification by God’s grace through man’s faith removes two dangers:
The pride of self-righteousness and self-effort
The fear that one is too weak to “make the grade”
MEANS OF JUSTIFICATION
HERESY
LEGALISM: We are saved and enter God’s covenant by our good works and meticulous keeping of God’s Law.
TRUTH
ORTHODOXY: We are saved by grace through faith but we remain in the covenant by following the Law of Christ
HERESY
ANTINOMIANISM: We are saved and enter God’s covenant by grace through faith so our future actions do not matter as we are not bound by moral laws.
MEANS OF JUSTIFICATION
A contradiction has been imagined between the teaching of Paul and James, one apparently teaching that a person is justified by faith and the other that he is justified by works.
Paul:
Gal 3:11 (NIV) Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because "the righteous will live by faith.“
James:
James 2:26 (NKJV) For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
MEANS OF JUSTIFICATION
The justification spoken of by Paul refers to
the beginning of the Christian life.
James uses the word in the sense of that life of obedience and holiness which is the outward evidence that a person is saved.
Paul is combatting legalism, or dependence on works for salvation.
James is combatting antinomianism (Greek: against-law) or the teaching that it does not matter so much how one lives as long as he believes.
MEANS OF JUSTIFICATION
Martin Luther: An ape can cleverly imitate the actions of humans. But he is not therefore, a human.
MEANS OF JUSTIFICATION
If he became a human, it would undoubtedly be not by virtue of the works by which he imitated man but by virtue of something else; namely, by an act of God. Then, having been made
a human, he would perform the
works of humans in proper fashion.
Paul does not say that faith is without its characteristic works, but that it justifies without the works of the law. Therefore justification does not
require the works of the law; but it does require a living faith, which performs its works.
JUSTIFICATION & PARDON
The word justification is a judicial term meaning to acquit or to declare righteous.
But is goes further, we are not only free from the penalty (acquitted or pardoned) but free from the crime (pronounced innocent) because our sin is imputed to Christ.
Justified – just as if I’d never sinned. Thus we are declared “not guilty”.
Rom 3:24 (NKJV) being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Rom 3:24 (Living Bible) yet now God declares us “not guilty” of offending him if we trust in Jesus Christ, who in his kindness freely takes away our sins.
CONCLUSION
Albert Barnes (1798 –1870): Justification is
the declared purpose of God to regard
and treat those sinners who believe in
Jesus Christ as if they had not sinned, on
the ground of the merits of the Saviour.
It is not mere pardon. Pardon is a free
forgiveness of past offenses. It has
reference to those sins as forgiven
and blotted out.
Justification has respect to the law, and to
God’s future dealings with the sinner. It is
an act by which God determines to treat him
hereafter as righteous—as if he had not sinned.
The basis for this is the merit of the Lord Jesus
Christ, merit that we can plead as if it were our own.
AUTHOR:
Gavin Paynter
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