The Purpose of Salvation

The Purpose of Salvation (just Jesus)

. This morning i want to talk with you all about the purpose of salvation, what it is and what is isn't.

. over the last couple of weeks that i have been on holiday, this is something that God has been speaking to me about. and its important for all of us to understand exactly what salvation is and what it means for us.

to be able to do what was talked about on Wednesdays panel we need to know what Jesus did for us we need to know what the purpose of salvation is so that we can teach the truth, its about a restored relationship with God, forgiveness of sins and eternal life, not just simply my life got better

. Firstly we need to recognize that salvation is the purpose of the gospel, salvation for humanity was the reason that Jesus came to earth, he did many other things while he was here (healing/miracles/teaching)

. but the purpose was for the salvation of all man kind by the good news of the gospel.

. The entire bible is teaching us about God’s redemptive plan for humanity from the moment that sin entered the world. not every scripture mention's Jesus directly, but all of scripture points to Jesus being the savior of mankind who would come to die for us.

. The entire purpose for Jesus coming to earth was for salvation, and what exactly is salvation

. The salvation that we received because of Jesus, is for the forgive of our sins, and the restoration of our relationship with God, that leads us to an eternity in the kingdom of heaven once our time on earth is done.

. The reason i think its important that we talk about this is because it is actually very easy to misunderstand or even forget exactly what salvation is and begin to confuse it with something that it is not.

Ephesians 2:8–9 NKJV

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.

. Salvation is something that is brought about entirely by God, there is no human involvement in salvation other than accepting it by the acknowledgement and confession of Jesus as the savior.

. and one of the common things that we as believers and people who have accepted Jesus can fall into thinking (or in some cases we are taught) that we must work for our salvation.

. That to hold onto this gift of salvation that is given to us we must do all these works.

. what this kind of thinking/teaching does is it actually takes salvation out of the hands of Jesus and makes it all about us as a person, that is actually up to how we live that justifies whether or not we receive salvation.

. Just going back briefly to something i said earlier, the entirety of the bible points to Jesus being the savior its God redemptive plan, it belongs to him and it is in his hands alone.

.It was; is; and always will be only Jesus makes salvation possible. it is not about our works but it is about his love

Romans 11:6 NKJV

And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

. again this is talking about the reality that the salvation we receive cannot in anyway be about our works because if it was our works than there was no need for Jesus to do what he did.

. once you accept and receive Jesus as your savior and repent of your sins. you have received salvation.

. the thing about works is that we do not do good works so that we receive salvation, we do the good works of God because we have fallen so deeply in love with him that we want nothing else.

.its not our of a hope that by works we will gain eternal life, we do works out of genuine love to the God who has gifted us eternal life.

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

. another things that happens when we do works thinking that's what we need to do for salvation, is that we begin to think and believe that we deserve something for the work that we are doing.

. and we can to easily forget the truth, that what we truly deserve from is nothing, he does not owe us anything, in fact he has already given us so much through Jesus and restored relationship and freedom form sin and the promise and hope of eternal life.

. what we truly deserved was death, yet God so rich in mercy and grace decided that was not to be our fate

.If i spend every moment of the rest of my life working for the kingdom of God, he still would not owe me a single thing, because he has already given us the single greatest gift that we did not deserve.

. now let me be completely clear i 100% believe and now that God continues to bless us in other ways and he is involved in ever aspect of our lives, and that he pours his favor out upon his children.

. and each of us have testimony of amazing things that God has done for us since we received salvation.

. but the moment that we begin to think that we ‘deserve something from God, and that we deserve to have our situation change, or that we deserve a healing.

. i think is the moment that we lose sight of just how incredible the gift of salvation is and the gospel that lead us to the receiving of the gift

.the last few weeks Ps Keith has been speaking about the prayer of Jabez

1 Chronicles 4:10 NKJV

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.

. We can ask and pray and believe for these same things Jabez did, and we can receive them just as he did, but the moment we begin to think that we deserve these things just because we did something right.

. we have lost sight of the gospel,and of Jesus.

. If God never did anything else for me from the moment i gave my life to him, would i still follow him? is Jesus enough for me?