Have You Been Saved? (part 1)
Lets start off with a few questions...
·
How do you get saved?
·
When do you receive salvation? Is it when you
repent… when you get baptized… At Death… At Second Coming of Christ?
·
What is salvation? Is it a place you go to… is
it a feeling… is it a reward for being good…
·
Where do you find the topic discussed in the
bible?
Definition of Salvation: to be
saved/rescued from danger, death, destruction etc. In the NT scriptures it
means saved from the consequences of your sins. That consequence is death. The
popular view of death is that a person’s soul or spirit leaves their body and
is floating out there… in heaven, nirvana, as a ghost, in hell etc. These
popular ideas are not found anywhere in God’s word.
The biblical meaning of death is, in the end… permanent
destruction of YOU! … after death there is nothing.
Why Do You Need Saved?
·
Romans
3:23 that means everybody
·
Romans
6:23 notice that these are presented as opposites
Death VS. Eternal Life
Your works earn you death because your works (what
you have done in your life) include sin. Eternal life is a gift meaning:
a) its something you don’t already have b) you have not earned it… you receive
it by the grace of God.
Key verses on immortal soul... (you don't have one)
·
Matt
10:28 death and destruction include body & soul… it is subject to
judgment and permanent destruction
·
Romans
2:7 immortality to be sought
·
I
Corinthians 15:53-54 immortality is that which the saved put on
Where does that leave you?
·
All have sinned… including you
·
The penalty for sin is death... including you
·
You do not have within you any form of immortality
or soul existence that lives on after you die.
However, God has immortality. He possesses it and the good news is… He
wants to give it to you as a gift, through His grace.
At this point you might be saying “WOW… this is great God’s
gonna give me eternal life”! This’ll be awesome, I feel wonderful already… WOO
HOO”…
But there is a problem. Not a little problem either…
actually it’s a HUGE problem… you’ve got a criminal record… And your criminal
record puts a barrier between you and the holy righteous God… your sins have
cut you off from access to God. Isaiah
59:1-2.
You might say… then I’ll do everything I can to fix my
relationship with God. I’ll forsake my former way of life… I’ll immerse myself
in His word… learn his way and follow it with all my heart from this point on!
Romans 7:7 the
law tells you what sin is so you know what you have to repent of
Romans 7:13 that
you recognize sin for what it is, why it has to be punished by death, how you
ended up under the death penalty for taking part in it.
OK, you’ve made some real progress and turned your life around! However,
I have some bad news. I hate to have to
tell you this but something is still missing… the barrier between you and God
is still there.
Alas, Law Keeping Does Not Fix The Problem...
Romans 3:20
keeping the law today (even for the rest of your life) does not cleanse you
from, redeem you from, or make up for sins that have already been committed.
Keeping the law will not make anyone right with God… remember its purpose is to
define sin for you so you know how you should conduct your life AND how you
have offended God.
Example: let’s
say you slander someone (saying something horrible or mean about someone that’s
not really true)… later you read in the law “you shall not give false testimony
against your neighbor (#9 NIV)”. You are convicted that this commandment is
true and you are committed to following this law from this point forward. You
are careful with your tongue and never utter a slanderous word again… the
barrier is still there. Obedience now does not pay the penalty for sins
committed in the past.
If I murder someone… then repent and never murder someone
again… I’m still a murderer, right?
Today’s obedience towards God is merely what was required of
me all along. And actually it is required of everyone who has ever lived whether
God had revealed the truth to them or not, whether bible knowledge was part of their
culture or not. Romans 1-2.
BOTTOM LINE – and it’s a point of logic that should be
easily grasped – AND its what the United Church of God teaches… all the good
works and law keeping in the world from this point on cannot justify you for
your past guilt and will not reconcile you to God.
Where does that leave you now?
·
All have sinned… including you
·
The penalty for sin is death
·
You do not have within you any form of
immortality or soul existence that lives on after you die
·
God is willing to give you eternal life
·
There is an unfixable barrier between you and
God because of sin
·
Law keeping won’t justify you before God
... What Does Justification / Justify mean?
Justify: to
pronounce, accept, and treat as just - Hebrew (sadeq)
Greek (diako)
- Not liable for the penalty due under the law
- Entitled to the privileges of those who have kept the law
- Therefore, to justify is a judicial act of administering law… the judge declares a verdict of acquittal and thereby excludes condemnation
For justification to make sense you must be convicted of these
basic premises:
- There is a judgment
- The standard is the law
- Lawbreaking is punishable by death
- God is the judge… and He is just
Lets Look at the Justness of God
Because God is just, to remain just He must
administer justice fairly, according to the truth, on the basis of
righteousness… only justifying/acquitting those who have kept His law… Exodus
23:7
Now you know why He cannot just let you off the hook. If He
lets you go unpunished what about everyone else? To be fair wouldn’t He then
have to let everyone go unpunished. And if God does not punish disobedience,
evil and wickedness then what is He? Is He holy, righteous and good?
He must administer justice fairly, according to the
truth, on the basis of righteousness… only justifying/acquitting those who have
kept His law…
MAJOR PROBLEM… this category of righteous men and women is
empty… Romans 3:9
Where does that leave you now?
You may have seen the light and changed your ways, you’ve
started to obey God’s commandments… but the barrier remains… the penalty for
your crime has not been paid. Think of it as a vast canyon… you are on the
cliff on one side and God is on the other… you need to cross over to have any
hope of escaping permanent death… but you have no way to get across. It seems
as though you are completely helpless…
There is a way to repair the relationship between you (the one who has
sinned) and the perfectly just God who must and will execute judgment in
accordance with the law. HOW? Through Jesus Christ! He comes across the divide
to get you and bring you across.
Jesus lived a perfect sinless life – there was no penalty of
death over Him. Yet, He suffered and died to pay a death penalty… but not his
own. He died to pay the penalty for your sins. He died so that you could be
justified and reconciled to God. He died so that the eternal life God has to
give can be given to you.
Romans 3:25-26 –
Jesus’ Death Satisfies The Demands of Justice. That God can remain just but
still justify the repentant and faithful sinner.
Note: Jesus’ life can pay for your sins, my sins, her sins,
his sins… because the Christ is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [and] by him all things
were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for
him.
... You Can Be Justified
·
How? … by keeping the law? NO
·
How?... by the blood of Jesus Christ
But you have to claim it! And you claim it through faith…
Rom 3:21-24
You are convicted of God’s truth and turn away
from the disobedience that leads to
death
You Believe that the death of Jesus Christ can and
will serve payment for your own death sentence
You demonstrate your conviction and your faith through
baptism into His death so you sins and their penalty can be removed
Now you are justified… made as if you are righteous (or
without sin). This is what righteousness apart from the law (apart from law
keeping) means. It is in this way that Jesus is your righteousness (refer to
continuum diagram… what about your life moving forward). Romans 3:27-31
You are justified… but have you been saved from death? Justify and Save are different words and they mean different things. Justification
means you are no longer condemned to death as a penalty for breaking the law…
but does that mean the same as God giving you the gift of eternal life?
Romans 5:9 …
being saved is something yet to come
Consider this:
your justification and reconciliation with God is like a restoration to ground
zero, like Adam before he sinned. Adam was at that point not under the death
penalty for sin (he could be theoretically considered just) …
Question: would he then
have lived forever in the flesh if he
never at any point disobeyed and sinned against God? – No. If so then why would there have been another tree in the
garden… the TREE OF LIFE Gen 3:22
Flesh was always meant to be a temporary state (flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God). Flesh and blood Adam did not have
eternal immortal life in him any more than you or I do. The best case scenario
for Adam would be to eat of the tree of life and gain eternal life. But it
never happened and once he sinned he was separated from God and the Tree of
Life.
Perhaps we could say that death came into the world through
Adam in that through his disobedience, he, and all subsequent humanity was cut
off from free access to the Tree of Life.
And salvation (your salvation) is about getting back to that Tree Of Life –
Stay tuned for Part II
Post a Comment