Important Bible Words - Salvation
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Intro:
Intro:
Good morning.
As we continue our series on important Bible words this week, we remember that last week we discussed the world’s greatest problem — Sin.
By way of reviewing that:
Last week we talked about how God created the world with good intentions, but then we showed sin entering the world in Genesis chapter 3, and then rapidly spreading in subsequent chapters.
We got to chapter 6 and showed that sin’s spread got so bad that God decided to destroy the whole world with a flood, saving Noah and his family — 8 souls.
Thus, we introduced briefly the idea of our topic today — Salvation!
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
5. We could say that the words “grace” and “salvation” are synonyms in this regard:
a. We don’t deserve either one!
b. The classic definition of grace is a good one — “Unmerited Favor.”
c. We don’t deserve it! (Noah himself didn’t deserve it!)
d. We don’t earn it!
e. And we don’t deserve or earn salvation, either!
6. This morning we are going to talk about God’s plan of salvation:
a. The need for it,
b. The One Who makes it possible,
c. And how to have it! (In other words, the plan of salvation)!
7. Let’s begin by briefly mentioning again …
The Need for Salvation:
The Need for Salvation:
To illustrate man’s universal need for salvation (universal because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” - Rom. 3:23), I want us to think about 5 important words that are used in Scripture.
They are:
Redemption.
Reconciliation.
Propitiation.
Justification.
And Atonement.
Surprise! You’re getting more important Bible words than you thought! ;)
This first word “redemption” means “being bought back.”
The Old Testament prophet Hosea is a perfect illustration of this concept.
In the book of Hosea, God tells Hosea to marry Gomer, a wife of harlotry.
Gomer’s unfaithfulness to Hosea would be representative of Israel’s unfaithfulness - spiritual adultery against God.
Even though Israel had betrayed God in this way, God would eventually take her back — He would BUY her back!
This is redemption!
The Bible says that Christians have been bought back/purchased by the precious blood of Jesus Christ! (1 Pet. 1:18-19; Acts 20:28 and many other passages).
Our next word that illustrates a need for salvation is “reconciliation,” which refers to a restored relationship.
The Bible teaches in Isaiah 59:1–2 that “the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”
People living in open rebellion to God, He will not hear! The relationship has been severed!
That’s what sin does! It severs the relationship between God and man!
That’s why we read in 2 Corinthians 5:18–19 Paul saying: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”
The Gospel is all about reconciling sinners to an all-loving and good and just God!
What about the word “propitiation?”
We’re probably less familiar with this word, but we read in Romans 3:23–26 - (Notice the overlap in a lot of these terms, by the way) - “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
God’s justice REQUIRES that He punish evildoers!
How can He still be just but also the JUSTIFIER? The only WAY was for Jesus to volunteer to take our place — to take the punishment that WE deserve — Death!
Propitiation is the idea of “appeasement” or “satisfaction” for sin — The fact that a sufficient punishment has been born in order to save.
1 John 2:1–2 “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”
1 John 4:10 - “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Then we come to the word “Justification,” which we’ve already alluded to when we read “that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Justification means “making or accounted as just, or free from the guilt or penalty of sin.”
We as human beings are fundamentally unjust — because we do not measure up to God’s goodness — “All have sinned and fall SHORT of the glory of God” — We are deserving of death because of this (Romans 6:23).
“But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!”
Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we can be justified — JUST AS IF I’D … NOT BEEN GUILTY OF SIN, as the saying goes!
And then finally we have the word “atonement.”
Atonement is similar to reconciliation in that it means “we are made ONE with God after having been alienated from Him through sin.”
Atonement is often broken down into its root words AT-ONE-MENT, to show that we become one with God once again when our sins have been atoned by the blood of Jesus Christ.
So we have 5 more bonus important Bible words: Redemption, Reconciliation, Propitiation, Justification, and Atonement.
These words show what sin does to us, and why salvation is needed!
Let’s now talk about …
The One Who Makes Salvation Possible:
The One Who Makes Salvation Possible:
The famous verse in Romans 1:16 says:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
2. The Gospel (good news) of WHOM? Jesus Christ!
3. Every sermon we preach — Somewhere in it, really, we need to make mention of Jesus Christ!
a. Why?
b. Because only through the saving blood of JESUS can man be saved from sin!
c. So somewhere in every sermon we need to be bringing Him up!
d. At the very least, we need to be mentioning Him in the invitation, don’t we? (And we need to offer the invitation every time we preach — Why? Because you never know when someone in the audience is going to have need to respond!)
4. Look at 1 Corinthians 1:18ff:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
a. The message what?
b. PREACHED! (Brethren, we need gospel PREACHERS!)
c. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature!” (Mark 16:15)
d. “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Rom. 10:15)
For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
5. The foolishness of God (if there WERE such a thing) would still be INFINITELY WISER than all the combined wisdom of men the world over!
6. And God saw fit to save the souls of men through the preaching of His Son Jesus Christ!
7. Now, you may have noticed a couple of verses that we have mentioned today talk about saving those who believe:
a. Romans 1:16 - “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”
b. Romans 3:26 - “… that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
c. 1 Corinthians 1:21 - “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”
8. So the question becomes — Does that mean, just believe in Jesus and you’re good to go?!
9. The answer is: No!
10. Notice Heb. 5:9
And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,
a. Just this one verse shows that faith only simply isn’t so!
b. There are MANY more!
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
a. Notice in Romans 10:16 - OBEYING the Gospel goes hand in hand with BELIEVING the report! (the report that is hearing the Word of God concerning the Gospel!)
b. If we truly believe, we WILL obey, just as Noah obeyed and found grace in the eyes of the Lord (Gen. 6:8).
c. (And we could list many other examples)!
11. Just go to Faith’s Hall of Fame (Hebrews 11):
a. “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain!” (v. 4)
b. “By faith Enoch was taken away” and didn’t experience death — Why? Because “he pleased God!” (v. 5)
c. “By faith Noah … prepared an ark to the saving of his household!” (v. 7)
d. “By faith Abraham obeyed!” (v. 8)
e. And on and on we can go listing the names of people in Hebrews chapter 11 who BELIEVED “to the saving of the soul” (Heb. 10:39)!
f. That is, they had enough faith to FOLLOW THROUGH with ACTION!
12. Which is why we read in James 2:24
You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
13. So, the grand question before us comes to this …
How Do We Have Salvation?
How Do We Have Salvation?
And the answer is through accepting Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf through obedient faith!
Not because we EARN anything because we don’t deserve His sacrifice!
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
3. The question is: What kind of faith is that? And the answer we’ve already shown — An OBEDIENT faith!
4. Noah was saved by grace through faith, and Noah obeyed God according to ALL that God commanded Him (Gen. 6:22)!
5. Jesus is the only way, truth, and the life that leads to the Father in heaven (John 14:6), and Jesus told us the way to get there!
6. Hear that report that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:17).
a. Believe that report (Rom. 10:16), which means to have faith in Jesus’ power to save through His death, burial, and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:1ff).
b. Repent of your sins, which means to have godly sorrow that results in reformation (change) of life/to make amends for your sins and to stop sinning — 2 Cor. 7:9-10.
c. Confess your faith in Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9-10).
d. And be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Gal. 3:26-27).
7. Once you have put on Christ in baptism, don’t take Him off!
8. Ephesians 4:21–24 says “If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
9. That means continue to walk in the LIGHT of God’s righteousness and holiness (1 John 1:5-10), which we MUST do if we want to remain saved!
10. The Bible does not teach once saved, always saved anywhere!
11. We must continue to live faithfully unto death (Rev. 2:10)!
12. Lord willing next week, we are going to look at another important Bible word — Judgment.
