Awana Lesson 15

Soteriology Introduction

Ology means the study of

Soteri comes from the Greek word soteria which means “salvation”

So Soteriology is the study of salvation.

Election

What does election mean?

To be chosen

Matthew 22:14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.””

Who are the few that are going to be chosen, elected, what are they chosen for, or chosen to do.

Salvation

Salvation is to be saved from something

What are those who God chooses being saved from?

Why are only a few chosen?

God is sovereign.

Adoption

God is choosing his children just as some parents choose children to adopt.

Atonement

Atonement means “A payment for a wrong or injustice”

When we sin we wrong God

The penalty of sin is death, physical, spiritual, and eternal.

Penal Substitutionary Atonement

Penal means punishment, Substitutionary means in place of, Atonement is the payment made for a wrong

Jesus Christ substituted himself, in our place, to be punished and pay for the sins of those whom God has elected for salvation.

2 Corinthians 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.”

Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Why did and why was Jesus the only one who could be our substitute for the punishment of our sins?

God hates Sin, but he loves us even though we are sinners.

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God loves his elect, and has loved them from before he created the heavens and the earth, He loves them so much that he sent His only son, the second person of the Trinity, to be born as a man, live in this world, and be punished and die for the sins of all that God has chosen to save.

Those whom God has elected for salvation are sinners

Jesus was on the cross once at a specific time chosen by God to pay for our sins.

This never has to be repeated and was sufficient to pay for everyone God has elected, before Jesus, while Jesus was on the earth, and after Jesus went back to heaven.

But God loves us even though we are sinners and hate and are at war with God.

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God loved us first and showed his love for us even while we hated God.

God wants all those whom he has elected to be with him in heaven.

Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”

Why can’t God just ignore our sin?

All sin must be paid for because God is justice, eternal perfect justice.

God is Love, he shows the depth and the extent of His love at the cross, that he would punish His only Son in our place.

1 John 4:8–10 “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

God is also perfectly just, and cannot overlook, or let sin slide without punishment. This we also see at the cross when God pours all of the elect’s punishment for all of their sins, past, present, and future on Jesus

This was the plan that God prepared before creation all along.

Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

Why can’t man spend a long time paying for their sins in Hell then when they have paid for them join God in heaven?

Even one sin deserves eternal punishment

This is the good news of the gospel. That God loves us so much that he sent his only Son to pay for our sins. When we have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Old Testament prophesied Messiah, and the atoning work on the cross, through his penal substitutionary punishment we have our eternal debt for sin paid, and that we are now adopted sons and daughters of God.