India #2 Soteriology Part 1
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Soteriology is a fancy word but is really very simple , it is the theology of salvation.
The study of Soteriology takes you through the doctrines that pertain to salvation.
There are three pivotal chapters in Genesis that pertain to the doctrine of salvation.
Chapter 1 which reveals the creation of man by the eternal all powerful self-existent God.
Chapter 3 which reveals the sin of man and his fall.
And then the greatest of all, chapter 15 which reveals how man can be saved from that sin, for Abram was justified by grace and through faith.
Martin Luther, that great reformer, whose rediscovery of the truths about justification in the sixteenth century launched the protestant Reformation, considered this the doctrine justification by grace through faith, to be the doctrine by which the church stands or falls:
Listen to his words, “When the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen.… This is the chief article from which all other doctrines have flowed.… It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour.” It is “the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines.
And I would add, that if you the preacher, do not have a great and thorough understanding of this doctrine, then your ministry will fail.
The apostle Paul understood this and proclaimed…
As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is proclaiming to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed!
That word accursed, basically means let him be damned to hell.
I began with the study of man so that we could see clearly the total depravity of mankind.
There is nothing anybody can do to warrant the acceptance of God.
It is essential we understand that if we are to share the gospel correctly.
The great danger throughout church history was to deviate from the true gospel.
It got so bad at one point that a number of men broke from the catholic church and began to again proclaim the true gospel.
That event is know as the reformation and it produced a series of statements that have stood the test of time.
We know them as the 5 Solas of the reformation.
Sola Scriptura
Salvation is according to the scriptures alone.
Sola Gratia
Salvation is by grace alone
Sola Fidei
Salvation is through faith along
Sola Christus
Salvation is in Christ alone.
And Sola
Salvation is for the glory of God alone.
When you grasp those 5 monumental truths, then you are ready to proclaim a gospel that is infused with the power of the Spirit of God.
The most important question facing man is this:
How can a fallen man who is not good, and does not seek God be saved?
The answer is by God’s sovereign grace.
GOD’S SOVEREIGN ELECTION
GOD’S SOVEREIGN ELECTION
Since fallen man is unable and unwilling to seek God, to understand spiritual truth, or to change his spiritual condition, then salvation must start with YHWH.
This is what is known as the doctrine of election.
In order for a person to be saved, YHWH must initiate the work of salvation or it will never happen.
The doctrine of election is the bedrock of the salvation of all people.
It is taught in the NT and demonstrated in the OT.
Abraham is the supreme example.
You need to ask your self, why does YHWH devote so much of scripture to this one man Abraham?
The answer is, he is the supreme illustration of salvation by grace through faith.
In order to fully understand election we need to see the relationship of election to grace.
Grace by definition is a gift that is undeserved.
The giver of a gift must elect whether or not to give the gift and to whom to give it.
A gift by definition is not deserved, the recipient is not entitled to it, it comes purely by the choice of the giver.
I have a gift to give.
I chose the gift.
I will choose who to give the gift to.
That is election.
Because man is sinful, he deserves only 1 thing, death.
But YHWH is a compassionate and loving God, a gracious God.
YHWH decided solely for His own reasons to save.
That is election.
Let’s begin with a look at the life of Abraham who is the example of salvation by grace through faith.
When we first meet Abraham in Genesis 11, he is living in Ur of the Chaldeans, he is a pagan, and he worships idols.
And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. ‘Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him Isaac.
Think carefully about the setting.
Abraham was just living life, worshipping his idols.
There is no indication he was seeking YHWH.
There is no indication he had a desire for YHWH.
In fact, it says quite specifically that YHWH took Abram from that land, and brought him to Canaan.
YHWH chose Abram, and not for any good reasons.
This is a picture of YHWH’s sovereign electing choice.
Abram was not some super guy who loved and worshipped YHWH.
Abram was a pagan idolatrous sinner.
Even when YHWH did call Abram, Abram sinned grievously.
In chapter 11 Abram stops in Haran for a lengthy time in disobedience.
In chapter 12 Abram lies to Pharaoh saying Sarai is my sister when in fact she was his wife.
Abram was scared Pharaoh would kill him and take Sarai because she was so beautiful.
So Abram lies.
Pharaoh does take Sarai as his own wife, and then finds out she belongs to Abram.
Abram sacrificed his wife to out of fear for his own life.
My point is, Abram is a depraved sinner, nothing special about Abram that warranted salvation.
YHWH had a plan, and that plan included Abram, and that by definition is election.
In the story of Abram we see the call of God upon Abram’s life.
We see YHWH revealing Himself to Abram every step of the way.
And honestly, Abram is not a very good follower.
Abram was a sinner in Ur, and he is still a sinner in Canaan.
Why would YHWH choose such a man?
Because there are no other kinds.
We are all sinners who if we were saved, it was because of God’s election.
Jesus said it this way, John 6:44
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
This is by nature election.
God chooses who and when to draw.
This is exactly what we see in the life of Abram.
The truth is all those who lived before Christ came were saved in the very same manner as we are today, by faith in Jesus Christ.
We look back to the cross and His atoning work.
They look forward to the same.
But both have to believe in order to be saved.
Abram is the supreme example of this, and it is clearly laid out in the scriptures.
The first thing we see in the life of Abram is God’s sovereign electing choice of Abram.
Second we see YHWH calling Abram into a relationship.
Then, we see Abram is declared righteous in Genesis 15:6 on the basis of faith.
Then he believed in Yahweh; and He counted it to him as righteousness.
This is an important milestone because of how so many think people are saved.
Some think you are saved by keeping the law.
But when Abraham was declared righteous, the law did not exist yet, it had not been given.
And what I am saying is this: the Law, which came 430 years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to abolish the promise.
The law came 430 years after Abraham.
So it was impossible that Abraham was saved by keeping a law that did not exist.
Some think you are saved by keeping some ritual, for the Jews is was circumcision.
Abram was saved in Genesis 15 and the ritual of circumcision did not come until chapter 17.
Therefore, is this blessing on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “Faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.” How then was it counted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be counted to them,
Circumcision was a sign of the covenant, not the means of it.
So it is impossible to say that Abram was saved by a ritual.
Some think you are saved because you are good.
I have already shown you, Abram was not good, he was a sinner just like everybody else, and unable to change.
Thus Abram was saved, not by any merit of his own, he didn’t have any, and not because he sought God, because he didn’t.
Abram was saved because YHWH elected him to salvation.
This is the universal story of salvation.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
This describes salvation and being born again.
Notice, they are not born again of blood.
Meaning, your bloodline has nothing to do with salvation,
The Jews believed they would be saved because they were descendents of Abraham, not true.
Nobody is saved because of who their family is.
Not of the will of the flesh, this refers to good works.
Nobody is saved because they earned it.
Nor the will of man.
Nobody is saved because they decided they wanted to follow God and be saved.
But of God.
We are saved by God and God alone.
This is illustrated in the sons of Abram, Ishmael and Isaac.
YHWH chose Isaac over Ishmael.
Ishmael was the first born, the heir.
But YHWH passed him over and chose Isaac.
This is also illustrated in the grandsons of Abraham, Esau and Jacob.
Did you ever ask, why did YHWH choose Jacob over Esau?
The answer is, because He wanted to.
That is all, YHWH wanted to.
Esau was the first born heir.
Both were pretty sinful people, but YHWH in His sovereign electing purposes chose Jacob.
I could take you through the Bible and show you again and again, how God elected one after another.
The Sovereign Election of God initiates salvation, it is the first cause, but it is only that.
Election introduces some new problems for us.
How can a just God simply ignore sin?
How can a holy God save sinners.
How can a holy and just God, forgive sin, and not destroy justice.
How can a righteous God justify a sinner?
All of these questions and more, are answered in the death of Jesus Christ.
The initiating cause of salvation is God’s gracious election, but the formal cause is the death of the mediator.
This is true both now and in the past.
Galatians 3 lays out the progression of God’s work of salvation.
First, Abraham was saved by believing God.
Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness,
Righteousness was given to Abraham on the basis of faith.
Abraham believed God!
But what did Abraham believe?
Was it simply that YHWH would give him a son?
Was it only that YHWH would give him the land?
Did Abram believe God would bless him?
All of that is true, but no the real answer.
Second, the essence of his faith was that YHWH would send a Savior, who is Jesus Christ.
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”
That last phrase is from Genesis 12:3, the Abrahamic Covenant.
YHWH preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to Abraham when He gave the Covenant.
I need to explain this to you.
The Bible does not tell us everything that happened in a given conversation or event.
For example, in John 3, the greatest teacher is Israel, Nicodemus, met with Jesus, the Son of God, and they had a spiritual conversation about salvation.
When you read the conversation, it only takes about 10 minutes.
I do not believe, that these two who were so important in their own way, had a conversation about the most important topic know to man, and it only lasted a few minutes.
I believe they talked long into the night.
But the Spirit of God only records a small portion of the conversation.
John would later say, John 21:25
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written one after the other, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
This same principle applies to Abram.
When YHWH gave the Abrahamic covenant, He also explained Jesus to Abraham in advance of Jesus’ actual life and death.
The point I want to make is this, the OT saints undoubtedly understood more than we usually give them credit for.
In Hebrews 11 we have what is called that great list of giants of the faith.
By faith they did great things.
But the question is, what did they believe?
The answer is given in Heb 11:13
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
They recieved promises, but those promises were not fulfilled in their lifetime.
But what is the promise they all received?
The promise of Jesus Christ.
John 8:56 sums it up nicely.
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
The day of Christ is His death burial and resurrection.
Now if Abraham longed to see it, then he knew of it.
But then Jesus says, he saw it.
YHWH revealed to Abraham the death burial and resurrection of Jesus so that Abraham could understand and believe God for salvation.
Furthermore, Abraham saw and understood the coming of Jesus, including the meaning of his death and resurrection, and he rejoiced in that reality.
Abraham believed in Jesus Christ.
This was the basis for His salvation.
Not a salvation based on who your family is, not a salvation based on your own self effort, not a salvation based on ones own intellect of desires, but a salvation of grace by faith rooted in Jesus Christ.
This is not just the story of Abraham, but of all the saints of every age.
Salvation begins with God’s election, progresses by His grace, and becomes a realityu through faith.
By faith we are save.
Sola gratia and Sola Fidei by grace through faith alone, in the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ.
Do you see why those 5 solas are essential for your to understand?
It is sola scriptura, the scripture alone that define for us true salvation.
It is sola gratia, by grace alone that God elects and saves sinners.
It is sola fidei, by faith alone that God’s grace can be given to the individual.
It is sola Christus, salvation is in Christ alone, there is not other name under heaven by which we must be saved.
And last, sola deo gloria, for the glory of God alone.
Salvation is according to the sovereign gracious election of YHWH and the penal substitutionary atoning death of Christ.
We have nothing to offer for our salvation but the sin that makes it necessary, thus YHWH gets all the glory for our salvation.
THE MOST HATED DOCTRINE
THE MOST HATED DOCTRINE
In most cases, election is the most hated and opposed doctrine.
You see, mankind is so full of pride, they want to contribute to their salvation.
This is revealed in many ways.
For example, some believe they are smart enough to figure it all out for themselves, that is pride.
Some believe they can earn it for themselves, that too is pride.
Election crushes our human pride.
The finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, crushes our human pride.
Then there are those scholars who reject election because they say it is only a doctrine of Paul.
So for a few minutes I want to show you, it is taught by all the apostles.
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as exiles, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to the obedience of Jesus Christ and the sprinkling of His blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you,
First, believers are chosen according to the foreknowledge of YHWH.
This word foreknowledge simply means, that YHWH knew what He wanted to do.
Then He did it.
YHWH knew who He would save, and then he chose them for salvation.
That is election.
Second, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus who caused us to be born again.
Your new birth was not your idea, or your work, but the Father caused you to be born again.
That is election.
Turn to John 3 for that great discussion between Nicodemus and Jesus.
In this great passage, Nicodemus is concerned about salvation, but unwilling to ask.
Jesus, reads his heart, and begins to answer the question.
The question in view is, how is a man saved?
This is what concerns Nicodemus.
Jesus’ response shakes Nicodemus to the core.
First, you must be born again.
You must ask yourself, why does Jesus use this metaphor to describe salvation?
When you were born the first time, what part did you play in it?
None, absolutely none.
Your parents conceived you.
YHWH knitted you together in your mothers womb.
And when the time was right, momma’s body expelled you into the world, and you were born.
Babies played no part in their birth.
Likewise, God chose you, God called you, and God birthed you anew.
You are now a new creation.
Think about that phrase, a new creation.
God created you the way you are and you had no say in it.
Just as you were created with black hair, me with brown, and none of us had any say in it.
The point of the new birth analogy is that the believer had no say in his birth.
Most people tend to believe, that they believe and then they are born again.
Folks, as I shared in the first session, spiritually dead people cannot believe in spiritual realities because they are spiritually dead.
Thus YHWH must make them alive unto spiritual things, if they are to understand and believe.
Second, we have the analogy of water and the Spirit.
Born of the water and the Spirit speaks as if these are the agents of conception, and in fact they are.
Spirit we understand, it is the Spirit of God and His role in salvation that is in view.
But water confuses many people.
Water is a cleansing agents.
There is a basin in the Tabernacle that the priest used to wash in order to be clean and ready to perform his duties.
If he didn’t wash, and entered into the holy of holies, into the presence of YHWH, he died.
No unclean person can enter into the presence of YHWH and live.
But water is a picture of something, let me show you.
for you have been born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.
We are born again by the word of God.
And also Titus 3:5
He saved us, not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
Regeneration is another word for the new birth, they mean the same thing.
Regeneration, the new birth has a washing element involved.
But what is that washing element?
Paul helps us with that in Eph 5:25-26
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
We are washed by the water of the word.
Thus when Jesus says you must be born of the water and the Spirit, He is referring to the cooperative work of the Word of God and the Spirit of God.
This is why it is essential we preach gospel truth.
When we preach the gospel truth, the Spirit of God takes the word of God, and produces a child of God.
Third, we have the analogy of wind for the work of the Spirit.
The wind blows where it wishes, and you and I cannot see it or control it.
Then notice, so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Meaning, the Spirit comes upon a person when it wishes, independent of anything in that person.
Nicodemus was confused and did not understand.
Which is perfectly right, he is not born again yet.
He has no capacity to understand, he is spiritually dead.
In all three analogies the common theme is that salvation is solely and wholly a work of God.
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
Let’s bring it all together.
Man is totally depraved, sinful to the core, and cannot change his condition.
You the preacher, cannot change the condition of lost sinners.
But when you preach and teach the true gospel, and you are trusting YHWH for the harvest, great things can happen.
My driving desire is for you to see, you role, is to preach the word and not worry about the outcome.
The harvest belongs to YHWH.
Jesus told his disciples Matt 9:37-38
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Lord of the harvest is a fascinating phrase.
It reminds us, that YHWH is Lord of when and who are born again.
So embrace your role, preach the pure gospel, and the Lord of the Harvest will bless your ministry.