Baptist Faith and Message Salvation

Baptist Faith and Message

Salvation

Article 4

“Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.

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

Salvation is the great theme of the Bible. The central focus of the Gospel message is the truth that God saves sinners. This is the great news!

The Bible presents our salvation as rooted in the character of God. God is the Holy One Who will judge with a righteous and perfect justice.

The doctrine of salvation explains how God can both be just and the justifier of the wicked/sinner (Romans 3:26).

God requires a sacrifice, or payment for sins. The wages of sin is death. Every sinner must pay for his or her own sin debt. But God demonstrated His mercy, grace, and love by providing the Perfect Sacrifice, the Oly Sacrifice that could take away the sins of the world: The Only Begotten Son.

Jesus met the demands of God’s own justice, took away the wrath of God, satisfied His Holy and righteous standards, His perfect justice, and took away the wrath was would fall upon all sinners.

Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection frame the great events through which He purchased our salvation.

1 – It Begins with God: God is Holy, Righteous, Good, Pure, Good, and Just.

2. Mankind – We are not: We have a need. Sin separates us from God and God’s judgement is upon mankind. Isaiah 54:6 – All of our attempts to achieve righteousness are like filthy rags. We cannot solve the problem. We are dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1).

*Salvation: The process by which God redeem His creation through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

3. Christ: 2 Cor. 5:18-19 – God has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ… God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.

John 3:16 – The cross stands at the very center of our Christian faith. Jesus died in the place of sinners. Sinners are rescued, ransomed, purchased, and liberated from sin. Jesus is the only way to be saved! Jesus is not a way… He is the way!

4. Repent and Believe – Salvation is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Everyone who believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.

Saving faith – Is a trusting faith, a belief that involves the heart and the total person… not just the intellect. Romans 10:9 – If you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Demons believe in God and they tremble (James 2:19). But demons are not saved. Their hearts, their lives do not change.

Our faith, our belief, changes the heart and this changes the life. Repentance is the turning away from sin, self, world… and a turning to Christ. There will be a godly sorrow as the heart, mind, and feelings change. So, their will be a change of heart and change of direction. And this change of direction can then be seen in the fruits, or lifestyle.

Are we saved by Jesus and works?

*We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Grace – God’s unmerited favor. Mankind is utterly dependent upon God to save from beginning to end. God is the Author and Finisher of salvation. He begins the good work and He finishes it. Eph. 2:8-9 – It is a gift of God… Mankind is left without any boasting.

So, Remember These Points as you Witness and Disciple:

A. God. B. Man’s Need C. Christ: Our Solution. D. Repentance and Faith

Then pray with that person using this outline: Dear God, I believe that you are Holy, and I am not. I need you to save me from my sins. I believe that Jesus Christ came to die for my sins and He was raised from the dead on the third day, and I am placing my faith in Him this day. Come into my life today. I want to live for you. In Jesus Name. Amen.

With simple faith, faith like a child, you may come into the Kingdom.

*Now let’s go a little deeper with the study:

1. Regeneration

2. Justification

3. Sanctification

4. Glorification

1. Regeneration: New Birth – John 3; 2 Cor. 5:17 – New creatures. Change of heart; come to God with repentance (turning from sin to God) and faith (believing/trusting Christ as Savior and Lord). God begins the work. This is the works of God’s grace. This is supernatural.

a. This is the way God begins the work of salvation in us. Ezekiel 36:26-27 – A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put in you… John 3 – You must be born again. 1 Peter 1:23-25 – You have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God… Acts 10:44 – the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard the word…

2. Justification: Right legal standing before God.God’s gracious and full acquittal upon all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. You were guilty under God’s justice but are placed in right standing with God by Christ’s work. You are now declared “not guilty.” God now looks at you through Christ and declares you “clean, righteous and holy.” You now have peace and favor with God.

3. (Not mentioned in the study) Adoption – this is the act of God whereby He makes us His family. We are now in the household of God. We are the family of God. God is now our Father, and we are now all brothers and sisters in the same household, with our One Father. You will always be treated as sons and daughters.

4. Sanctification- You are set apart from sin and this world for God. And you will grow in Christ likeness as you walk with Christ.

Romans 6:11-18 – Dead to sin, cut off sin, Set free to do what is right. 2 Cor. 3:18 – Changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another. 1 Thess. 4:3 – God’s will is your sanctification. This work is never finished in this life. God leads us, we obey, and we are made more mature.

5. Glorification: This is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed. You will be like Christ in the end. One day, Christians will receive a new body, and the sin nature will be completely eradicated. We look forward to a new home, a new heaven and a new earth where sin will no longer be an issue. Sin and evil will be no more.

Scripture:

Romans 8:29-30 – For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, who He predestined, these He also justified; and whom He justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Salvation, then, has three aspects: Past, Present, Future

• Past: We have been saved from the penalty of sin. We have been justified.

Sin is the reason we need to be saved. We are saved from various aspects of sin, and so our salvation has a past and present (as well as a future) phase. When we are saved (justified) we are saved from the penalty of sin. This is a past act. Jesus paid for our sin on the cross in the past, and when a person trusts Him for salvation, that person is forgiven and justified before God. This is a once-for-all transaction. A person who is justified has been saved:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8–9). Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1)

• Present: We are being saved from the power of sin. We are being sanctified.

However, it is not only the penalty of sin that is a problem. Christians still struggle with the power of sin in their lives. Even though they are forgiven, they are not perfect. While on earth they are being saved from the power of sin (sanctified).

Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace (Romans 6:11–14).

1 Thess. 4:3 – This is the will of God: Your sanctification.

We have been set apart, by God and for God. And we are being set apart from sin progressively.

So even Paul the apostle admits that he still struggles against sin in his life. However, as a Christian matures, there will be victories over sin in day-to-day life. Christians are being saved from the power of sin over them.

• Future: We will be saved from the presence of sin. We will be glorified.

“The Lord is our Salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord Himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become my Salvation.” - Isaiah 12:2

Psalm 27 - The lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of who shall I be afraid?

Psalm 18:1-2 - I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 25:5 - Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.