Salvation

Baptists take the words of John 3:3 very seriously. We believe everyone must be saved. By “must” we mean if they are not, they will perish forever. I’m going to discuss the four terms that describe our salvation. As I discuss those terms, we will see what Baptists have historically believed concerning salvation.

1. Regeneration.

This is an act of God. See John 3:6

1 Peter 3:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

1 Peter 1:23

since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

It is a miracle that only God can do. God gives us spiritual life.

Power over sin

Power to endure in faith until the end

Change of desires

God has a means by which He works.

A. He works the new birth through the gospel.

Romans 10:13-14

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

God does not save us apart from the Word.

B. He works repentance in our hearts.

A change of mind:

About God. We believe the gospel.

About sin. We hate sin and want to be free from it.

Jesus preached repentance (Matthew 4:17).

The Apostles preached repentance.

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, (Acts 3:19).

The Spirit of God does this work.

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: (John 16:8).

C. He works faith in our heart.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The proof that a person has been born again is they have an ongoing and genuine repentance of sin and faith in the finished work of Christ.

We believe that each person is responsible for their own soul. You must come to Christ personally.

We don’t believe you are saved because:

Your parents were saved.

You were baptized.

You participate in church activities.

2. Justification.

This is what our statement of faith says:

Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.

Let’s look at Romans 3:21-26. This is a beautiful description of justification.

Justification is apart from the Law- not earned but declared/imputed.

Justification includes an imputed righteousness.

Justification is by grace.

Justification comes through the work Christ accomplished on the cross.

Justification is received by faith.

Let’s look at the word propitiation.

It means “satisfied”. Propitiation means Jesus satisfied the justice of God. God did not lower His standards to save us. Jesus took the full penalty of the Law Himself on calvary. God the Father was satisfied with His work.

How does that apply to us? Flip to Romans 4:5.

God applies the work of Christ to us when we put our faith in Him.

Flip to 5:1. We now have peace with God.

It wasn’t just our sins transferred to Christ. It was also Jesus’ righteousness transferred to us.

2 Cor. 5:21

For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Justification means:

Christ satisfied the justice of God.

Christ provided a righteousness for all who believe.

3. Sanctification.

God, through the power of the Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Jesus.

This begins when we are saved.

It continues until we die.

God works through our will.

God works through the Word.

John 17:17 says

Sanctify them in the truth, Thy Word is truth.

1 Peter 2 tells us to desire the word so that we can grow.

Through the Word and through our will God sanctifies us.

We must be in the Word.

We must continually repent.

It is a process- it does not occur all at once.

It is progressive- it does not stop on this earth.

4. Glorification.

Our statement:

Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

2 Cor. 4:17

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

1 John 3:2

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Two things I will say about this:

1) When a Christian dies, they are completely rid of sin. We go to heaven. We enjoy perfect sinlessness for the first time.

2) When Christ returns to earth, we will receive a new body. All Christians will receive this simultaneously. At this point the work of salvation will be complete in the saint (1 Cor. 15:23).

What do we believe we are saved from?

We are saved from sin (it’s power, it’s presence).

We are saved from the judgment of God.

We believe salvation is available for anyone who will call on the name of the Lord (Romans 10:13).

As we close I want to highlight a sentence in our belief on salvation:

There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

We’ve already dealt with the personal part. I want to focus on the “Jesus Christ as Lord” part.

We don’t believe you can separate Jesus. Some think you can accept Jesus as Savior but not as Lord. That doesn’t make sense:

1) We don’t see that anywhere in Scripture.

2) Scripture explicitly says, “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.” (Romans 10:9)

Baptists have been accused of teaching easy believism. Some have. Historically we have not believed that. We believe you must confess that Christ is your Lord. If you do not do this you cannot be saved.

This is not a formula. The confession is more with the life than the lips.