Untitled Sermon

Bible Doctrine 3

The Doctrine of Salvation:

What have we learned?

john 1

What is Salvation?

The gracious work of God—the Holy Spirit—through the Gospel, in which the repenting believer is declared righteous by the forgiveness of sins for Christ’s sake

and is thereby united with Christ and born again.

1. God’s sole work

2. Justification

3. Repentance and Faith

4. Unity with Christ

5. New Birth a Sanctification

6. Divine Election

7. The Means of Grace

The Doctrine of Salvation

1. God’s sole work

Salvation is 100% the work of God.

G All God’s work at the cross

G All God’s work in our own experience, too

a Fallen, sinful man is in bondage to sin—which means that he is helpless to save himself, to make himself more acceptable to God, to change his heart or to overcome any of his natural rebellion against God and to surrender to God or to love and trust in Jesus.

“Free Will” Definitions:

philosophical: the freedom to make real choices; not determinism

theological: the ability to make spiritual progress on our own

a not about the act of choosing itself, but about the cause and effect of our choosing.

a We do not cooperate with God in salvation in any sense that we make a positive contribution to it.

In salvation, the sinner must come to the point of accepting God’s free gift—also called death or dying (). This accepting attitude is also 100% the work of God.

“apart from Law” (, )

“no one is justified by the law” ()

“apart from works” “who does not work” (, )

“all who rely on works of the law are under a curse” ()

“not a result of works” ()

“by grace” (; ; , ; )

“as a gift” “free” (; , )

“Christ died in vain” ()

“The man who is converted and has come to believe always finds himself face to face with an incomprehensible, unearned happening that has come upon him as a blessed, saving experience; that he has neither produced nor selected by any natural or higher capabilities, and that is nevertheless not felt as a compulsion but as an unspeakable joy, which he thankfully accepts.”

--Adolf Koberle

Now—we are at a crucial point in the doctrine of salvation!!

1 People have NO ability at all to help towards their own salvation.

2 Salvation is completely God’s work, both on the cross and in our lives.

Logical Conclusions:

Either: everybody is saved (universalism)

human choice/response is still the determining factor

God is responsible for both faith and unbelief

But: none of these logical conclusions are Biblical!

It does NOT follow from Holy Scripture that since humanity can hinder and destroy God’s gracious work, that humanity can also help and assist it, or freely choose it.

a Salvation is 100% God’s Work.

Damnation is 100% human responsibility.

As men we have the sad possibility of a freedom to do evil. The freedom to do good must be given us. We can destroy the image of God in which the Creator fashioned us as His creatures, but we cannot repair it. We cannot move God to call us, but we can stop our ears to His call when it comes to us. None of us can bring about the "drawing of the Father," but we possess the fearful ability to withstand the breath of the Spirit when He breathes upon us, and so to rouse the wrath of God against us. He who allows himself to be fed with the bread of life receives life, he who refuses it compasses his own death. Man cannot save himself but he can destroy himself. My faith is produced by grace alone, the rejection is all my fault. The good works are God's work, the evil works are our work. The "I will" comes from God, the "I will not" from man's own free choice. Acceptance is not earned through merit but is a gift; perdition is not the result of fate but of sin. In the final judgment men are placed at the right hand of the Judge; they place themselves at His left.

–Adolf Koberle, “The Quest for Holiness” p.143

Why are some saved and some lost?

Question #1: Why are some saved?

Answer: God’s saving grace alone.

Question #2: Why are some lost?

Answer: Their own sin and unbelief alone.

The Doctrine of Salvation

1. God’s sole work

2. Justification

M God saves sinners by declaring them to be righteous even while they are sinners.

A. Main Biblical texts

g ()

How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,

Whose sin is covered!

How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,

And in whose spirit there is no deceit!

,

Judge me, O LORD my God, according to Your righteousness, And do not let them rejoice over me. . . . Let them shout for joy and rejoice, who favor my vindication; And let them say continually, "The LORD be magnified, Who delights in the prosperity of His servant."

g –- ; ;

Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

"Come now, and let us reason together," Says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.”

g ;

Jesus said to the paralytic, "Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven."

9And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' 13But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!' 14I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

g

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

g - NASB

21But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

g

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,

g

...nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

g

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

g

...and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

B. Significance of Justification

“to declare righteous” -- “to judge righteous”

“to make righteous by declaration”

(not transformation)

to put into a right relationship

to cause a right standing

Justified = “just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned”

“God’s declaration that, because of the merit of Christ and without any merit of our own, we are righteous in his sight. Our sins are forgiven and we are credited with the righteousness of Christ.” CBTC, p.233

a legal – “acquit”

a forensic (before God, or in God’s sight)

a forgiveness of sins -- non-imputation or not counting sin

a TWO REALITIES:

sinful guilt forgiven -- AND -- righteousness credited

a a declaration, not a transformation

a the declaration of the Gospel

a simultaneously saint and sinner

a two kinds of righteousness: