Words Of Grace: Saved/Salvation
Words Of Grace: What God Has Done • Sermon • Submitted
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10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Sermon Scripture
Sermon Scripture
1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
SAVED, SALVATION:
These are the words used by most Christians, most of the time, to indicate that one has been born again and is therefore going to heaven.
However, as the Holy Spirit uses these words in the scriptures, they actually have little to do with “new birth.”
The reason that the Spirit chose birth as a picture of God’s work for us is that the one born had absolutely nothing to do with that birth.
Saved/Salvation: (sozo) = To deliver, rescue, or protect.
This word is used by the Holy Spirit over 100 times in various ways.
In the majority of cases the primary idea is of deliverance or rescue.
To be clear, God has delivered us from the:
1. power of sin
2. from death
3. and from hell.
God did all of this by means of the finished work of Christ.
What we have noted in this study as foundational but often lost is that God did this in Christ before the foundation of the world. We did not initiate this by personal faith in Him.
Our faith comes as a gift from God to the new creation.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Grammatically, I am not trying to assign the word faith to the gift of God. Logically, I most certainly am. I am actually suggesting that this passage demands such.
Grammatically, I am not trying to assign the word faith to the gift of God. Logically, I most certainly am. I am actually suggesting that this passage demands such.
Grammatically what is connected with “gift” in this passage is “saved”. Now practicing our consistant theology or doctrine, we know that the saved are those who believe, and that those who believe are those whom God has given the ability to believe…the ability to trust, the ability to exersise faith and thus be saved.
If we only look at this verse logically, taking the gramatical even as the “free will” crowd loves to point out…it says that by grace you have been saved.
Now, grace + faith = what?....it equals no grace.
So the interpretation cannot be that the faith comes from you. It is of necessity that if the salvation is of God then the faith or the means by which the salvation comes must also be from God. If not then you remove the grace from this passage.
So our faith then comes as a gift from God to the new creation.
The glorious truth of the gospel is not that God would do something if you asked Him to.
No, the glorious truth is that God:
Is propitiated = sin satisfied
Has redeemed you = ransomed you
Has reconciled you = restored to former state
Has made you righteous = made perfectly righteous (new mans inability to do unrighteousness)
The acceptance (belief) of this truth is what delivers you from:
The law
The guilt of sin…etc..
and it opens up marvelous fellwoship with Him.
The propitiation, redemption, reconciliation, righteousness of God are purchased by the death of Christ in our place but we are saved, not by His death, but by His life:
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
For example look at
1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
RECEIVED: (redeemed) only a redeemed one could do that which is pleasing to God.
STAND: (made righteous) these truths are the very heart of the gospel.
Then we read:
“BY WHICH ALSO YOU ARE SAVED”
The redeemed, reconciled child of God is “saved” by believing (keeping in memory) what God has done for him in Christ.
Now, why should we suggest that if he does not keep it in memory, then he also loses what has been done for him in Christ?
Did Christ die in vain?
It is apparent that a redeemed, reconciled child may not be delivered.
I will say it again as it is one of those things which is apparent in scripture and yet either overlooked or denied in much of Christian “pop culture”.
It is apparent that a redeemed, reconciled child may not be delivered.
Turn your attention for a moment to the prodigal son.
He was a son when he left, a son all the time he was gone, but not in fellowship with his father and not delivered from the bondage of the “far country”, and he was a son when he returned. His sonship never changed but his relationship with his father did.
The Holy Spirit here was teaching this truth in type with Israel in bondage in Egypt. They were His children, His sheep, even though they were in bondage and not in fellowship with Him.
They did not ask to be redeemed, did not want to be redeemed, and complained when they were redeemed, but God said they were His and He redeemed them. However they were not delivered from the wilderness because they did not believe. Notice :
12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
Notice that Moses was not permitted to lead the children of Israel into the promised land because even he had times when he did not believe.
Now, in the same way, He redeemed us when we were His enemies.
We did not ask Him to redeem us, and were not seeking Him.
Yet He did, and that is the glorious gospel.
If we believe:
we have peace that passes understanding,
we have joy unspeakable,
we are delivered from the law,
from the fear of death,
from worry and concern, etc...
Over 20 times God declares that He redeemed His people from bondage.
Please church, do not miss this lesson.
They never did accept this in the flesh so God declares He will put within them a new heart and a new mind. That He has done for us when He made us a new creation in Christ.
It is the new creation that believes.
Consider :
16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.
It would be foolish and illogical to suggest that Timothy was not redeemed or that he was not born again. But we read that he is saved by taking heed to doctrine/teaching (truth).
This is also true of all of those who are His sheep, that is, those who hear, in fact the only ones who can hear,
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;
Many Christians have been led to believe that “saved” means being “born again”, moving from death to life, and that this is accomplished by putting personal faith in Christ. In so doing the flesh is magnified and the person and work of Christ is minimized.
Thus virtually no thought is given to the serious truths of the Word.
The truth that God has completely ransomed His own and made them righteous by His grace and by His grace alone.
The truth that being redeemed, we are invited to believe what He has done in order to be saved.
The Scriptures teach the total depravity of the fleshly man, his total inability to please God, to come to God, to receive the things of the Spirit of God, to hear the Word of God, etc...
It was absolutely necessary that He make us new creations before we could believe since it was impossible for the old creation to believe.
So, church, your looking for your choice…well it is you, the redeemed the ransomed who have it…You see we have been taught that the choice is for the fleshly rather than the child of God.
We have been told that is a “evangelical…come be born again passage”, but it is for the child of God…it is an invitation or rather a warning a plea to the believer.
Hebrews 3:7
7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today if you hear His voice,
8 Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,
And saw My works for forty years.
10 “Therefore I was angry with this generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they did not know My ways’;
11 As I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, 15 while it is said,
“Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”
16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.
You see, it is the redeemed who must take care. Not that you are not redeemed, but that your fellowship, your peace might not be robbed from you.
And oh believer, how wonderful it is that He has completely ransomed His own, made them new creations in Christ, and drew them to himself. This is what we are invited to believe and with that belief comes the peace that passes understanding and the joy that is unspeakable. With that comes the life that rises above that of the flesh and is perfected forever. We are redeemed by His death, saved by His life - glory be to God. - Amen!