Reconciled: How the Gospel Brings Us to God

Introduction: Before and After

Kendall and Paizlee

Before and After

Weight loss

Plastic surgery

Transition—> If there is a clear “before and after” we assume a product is useless. If the Gospel to which you have committed has not changed you, it is a useless, and therefore a false gospel. The biblical gospel is effective. It changes.

Separation: Why We Need to Be Saved (21)

Alienated in our mind—> to be far from God

Hostile in our mind—> to be confused about God and therefore opposed to God’s will and character

Engaging in evil deeds—> the consequences of the first two.

Leaves us in a state of hopelessness

Separation from God is always the consequence of sin against God

God told Adam and Eve they would die if they sinned against Him.

God issued a certificate of separation from Israel for their ongoing sin.

Isaiah 59:2 NASB95

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

Reconciliation: How We Are Saved (22a)

Reconciled: means that we have been brought into a favorable relationship with someone against whom we warred

His fleshly body indicates the cost.

It was a real sacrifice

It was a historical sacrifice

It was a costly sacrifice

Presentation: The Results of Our Salvation (22b)

You are saved so that you might be presented before God

Holy

Blameless

Beyond reproach

Illus: Two candlesticks on kitchen table. Wife’s favorite family heirloom. Fire. Husband finds candlesticks in heap of burned possessions. Takes them and meticulously shines, polishes, and perfects them so that he can present them to her. Out of the ashes they are raised to be presented. That is what Jesus is doing to us. Out of the ashes…

Responsibility: The Working Our of Our Salvation (23)

The goal of our salvation is that we might be presented “holy and blameless.” This is a consequence of God’s grace.

However, we bear responsibility to the salvation which we have been given.

First class conditional clause

Not “If only [we could] eat then we wouldn’t die” says the person who is living in poverty.

Not “If we eat [and we might] the we won’t die” says the person who is hanging on until food comes.

But “If we eat [and it is right here in front of us] then we won’t die” says the person who tucking the napkin into his shirt.

**The Bible is saying that “if we continue in the faith [and we have been firmly established, so we will], then we will be presented as holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.”

The consequence of then, brings hope

Conclusion: The proclamation of the Gospel

Salvation is not a good luck charm. It is not a place your bets and roll the dice. It is not a fire policy or preventative maintenance measure.

It is a personal relationship with the living God of the universe.

Isaac Watts captures this well in the hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross:”

1. When I survey the wond'rous Cross On which the Prince of Glory dy'd, My richest Gain I count but Loss, And pour Contempt on all my Pride. 2. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the Death of Christ my God: All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his Blood. 3. See from his Head, his Hands, his Feet, Sorrow and Love flow mingled down! Did ever such Love and Sorrow meet? Or Thorns compose so rich a Crown? 4. His dying Crimson, like a Robe, Spreads o'er his Body on the Tree; Then am I dead to all the Globe, And all the Globe is dead to me. 5. Were the whole Realm of Nature mine, That were a Present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my Soul, my Life, my All.

Salvation is not adding to your already good qualities. It is dying. Dying to yourself. Dying to the demands of the world. It is living to and for and with Jesus Christ.

Invitation: Some of you have approached Christianity like a good luck charm. The real Gospel—the Gospel of Jesus Christ—is bidding you to come and die. To give your life to Christ. To exhibit that death in baptism. To grow in that death through serving God in the church. Is one of these your need today?