BFM 2000 Series #4: Salvation

Introduction

What does it mean to be saved?

Often we use this term to talk about us being saved from something. There was a burning building, but the firefighter saved me. What did he do? He saved you from possibly burning in the building or from being trapped inside as the structure collapsed. He saved you from something happening to you. There are other times where we talk about something being saved for something else. For example, whenever you were a kid, did you have something that you really wanted but it was kind of expensive so you had to save up your money for it? Whether it be a toy, car, clothing item, or trip, we save money for something at times in our life.

We can be saved from something and we can be saved for something. This is how we need to look at salvation. We know that we are saved from the punishment of our sins and eternal separation from God in a place called hell. It’s a blessing to be saved from this! But it’s an equal blessing to be saved for something. What are we saved for? We are saved for Christ and we are saved to be His servants. Our purpose as Christians isn’t to say thank you God for saving me and sit on the sidelines as the years pass us by. Our purpose is to stand and serve! Our purpose is to enjoy and worship the Lord every day of our lives.

Whenever we think of salvation, though, we usually stop at conversion. It’s important to recognize the different tenses of salvation - past, present, and future.

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

We read here that we are a new creation as Christians! This takes place the moment that we are justified and declared righteous before God. This takes place whenever we repent of our sins and place our faith in Christ as Lord. The problem that many people get into, though, is that they think that this is where salvation stops. This is all they think about - I prayed a prayer in the past, I walked an aisle, I said some words, and that’s it. There’s nothing in the Bible about reciting a magical prayer formula and there certainly isn’t something in the Bible about walking down an aisle at the end of a 70 minute worship service. What does the Bible share with us? The Bible shares that we repent and have faith. That’s it! This can happen literally anywhere and everywhere. But what we have to see is that this one time action can’t just be a one time action. It must propel is forward and lead us down the road of discipleship to be more like Jesus.

Why does this matter? Because we are a new creation, according to God’s Word, we are literally born again! Therefore, presently, salvation should impact our day to day lives as we grow to be more like Jesus. We know that one day we will see our Savior face to face and in that moment we will be glorified and salvation will be complete. Until that day, though, salvation is still going on in our lives. We have been saved. We are being saved. We will be saved.

Let’s continue our study of the BFM 2000 this evening and look at Salvation

“Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.”

This article is broken up into 4 distinct parts that we’ll look at later, in the mean time, let’s look at Scripture references that talk about this subject.

Genesis 3:15 CSB

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

Genesis 15:6 CSB

6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Isaiah 53:6 CSB

6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

John 1:12–14 CSB

12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. 14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Matthew 1:21 CSB

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

John 3:16–18 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

Acts 4:12 CSB

12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

Ephesians 2:8–10 CSB

8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Hebrews 5:8–9 CSB

8 Although he was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. 9 After he was perfected, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

How is One Saved?

Can someone save themselves? The world says yes. In fact, many Christians think that works can save and, worse, that any type of faith can save. Barna research shared this lats year, “56% of self-proclaimed evangelical Christians believe that you can reach God through all faiths, not just through Jesus Christ.” Any faith will do - it’s not just through Jesus. Can we be saved through faith in works, or through faith in Muhammad or another lower g god?

John 14:6 CSB

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus keeps His Word! He is our hope and there is no eternal hope outside of Jesus Christ. If we don’t understand what Jesus has done and if we don’t know who He is, we are lost and will remain lost! This is why missions matters so much, as we discussed this morning. You can know what the Bible says about Jesus, you can know the Easter story, but unless you’ve repented of your sins and placed your faith in Him as savior and Lord, you are still lost.

Some in our world wonder why we even need to be saved. Why do I need to be saved? I’ve not really done anything bad. I’ve never killed, stolen, cheated, or even cursed - what do I need to be saved of? I haven’t done any of those bad things! The Bible shares that all of us have sinned and are without excuse. The Bible shares with us that there is salvation through Christ and that there is no person or sin too great for Christ to forgive! This is good news - but it also means that each one of us is responsible with what we do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As humans we love receiving credit. We love the pat on the back, the “good job” messages, and the other things that make our hearts swell up. That same idea can become present when it comes to salvation too if we’re not careful. We can want to boast in our works, faith, and awesomeness that we take the credit rather than giving 100% of the glory to our King! Let’s look at why we can’t take the credit when it comes to salvation:

Regeneration

Regeneration is a word that, sadly, is apparently divisive in churches. I know of pastors who have had people leave their churches because they have used this exact word. The fact of the matter is that we, as Southern Baptists, believe in regeneration. The BFM shares this, “Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.”

Why is this such a controversial subject? Much of it goes back to the idea that we want credit for our work. We don’t want to think that there is something that happens to us that we don’t get the credit for. Regeneration is one such thing as we see that this is God’s work of grace in making us new creatures in Christ. God changes our hearts and convicts us of our sin!

If you turn in your Bibles to John 3, you see Jesus have a conversation with a Pharisee named Nicodemus and Nicodemus wanted to know how Jesus was able to do the things He was able to do. Jesus said

John 3:3 CSB

3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:5–6 CSB

5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Everyone is born once - but Christians, those who enter the Kingdom of God, are born again. How does this happen? In Ephesians 2:1 we read that we were once dead in sins. As I’ve shared before, “Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once.” If we’re just born physically, we will die lost in our sins and we will be eternally separated from God and, die twice. But, if we are born twice, if we are born physically and if we are born again, we will only die once. We must be born again!

How is one born again? How is one regenerated? We see that this is God’s work. We don’t work and do good things and, in time, do enough things to be born again. That’s not how it works because if so, we could boast in our actions and works. Instead, this is God’s work. We simply respond with faith.

This is the idea of divine adoption. We are in sin and we are not in God’s family. We are enemies of the Gospel. But God… What has He done? He has adopted us into His family. Is this due to our work or goodness? No. It’s due to Christ’s work on the cross and His work as our great high priest. Because of Jesus, we are adopted as sons and daughters of God. We are given Christ’s righteousness instead of our own.

In Roman custom to be adopted was to be fully accepted into the new family. Your old family? Gone. Your old debts and status? Forgotten. Your old actions? Forever changed. Your respect, status, rights, privileges, and honor was not that of your previous father, instead it was that of your newfound Father. You were given the same rights as his biological children. You were an heir of his estate. You were His! This is the picture of spiritual adoption. We are God’s because of what Christ has done. We are given the inheritance that Christ deserved. Christ was given our sin. To quote Jonathan Edwards, “You contribute nothing to salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” Our sin was upon Christ, His righteousness goes to us.

This is the beautiful picture of spiritual adoption. How does this happen? While there can be some debate, we know that the Spirit convicts us of our sin and the truth of the Word and we also know that we must respond in repentance and faith. How is faith different than knowledge? Anyone can read a Bible and get knowledge - not everyone who reads the Bible has faith in Jesus. It’s not enough to know something happened - we must have faith and cling to Christ. Information stays in our head - faith changes our lives. We remember what He has done. We remember who we were and now who we are. We are born again and the only appropriate response to this truth is to thank the Lord for this new birth and to walk in His Spirit each and every day.

Justification

The next part of salvation that we see is justification as the BFM notes, “Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.”

This is past tense word in the sense that if you are a Christian, you have been justified. This is a legal declaration that has happened in the past. What does it mean to be justified? It means that the punishment that you deserved was taken on by someone else and your account has been credited as such. In a courtroom there are often people who are being charged with something only to be proven innocent of the charges. Our court systems strive to look at the evidence and arrive at the correct conclusion. Justice is supposed to be served in a court room and by a judge. If a man was accused of killing someone in cold blood and there was overwhelming evidence supporting this conclusion and the judge let him walk away absolutely free, we would say that this was not a “just” or “fair” judge. The Bible shares with us that God is just and that God serves as the judge.

The Bible shares with us that we are guilty before a holy God. Our sin deserves a punishment, just like a murderer deserves to be punished by the court. For God to be just, our punishment has to go to someone - God can’t just wipe it away. Therefore, it goes to Christ. As Romans 3 declares

Romans 3:23–25 CSB

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.

God’s righteousness is satisfied because of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ on calvary. How does this impact us? We repent of our sin - our sin is transferred onto Christ - His righteousness is transferred onto us. If you don’t repent, who pays for your sins? Not Christ - you do for all eternity. You and I must repent. Whenever we repent, legally, we are justified. We are declared righteous before Him! Because of this, again, there is no room to boast in ourselves or our works. We don’t have to fret whenever we fall short - Christ has paid for our sins, past, present, and future! As the 1678 Orthodox Creed of General Baptists declares, “The ground of justification is the blood of Christ. The material cause of justification is Christ’s active obedience. The essence of justification is the imputation of Christ’s obedience for us. The means of justification is faith. The purpose of justification is God’s glory and man’s salvation.”

Sanctification

If Justification is what has happened to us in the past - at conversion - Sanctification is what is happening to us today. The BFM shares this, “Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.”

Sanctification is definitive and progressive. On the one hand, we are definitively sanctified. The Holy Spirit is at work in our lives and dwelling inside of us. This is a clear and unmistakeable thing that begins at conversion. Yet, sanctification is also progressive. We grow in sanctification. We grow in becoming more like Christ. We grow in maturity. We grow in conforming to His plan for our lives. Think about some of the ways that you have grown in your Christian walk over the years.

Are there some sins that you used to struggle with that you no longer do? Are there some actions that you used to be tempted to do that you no longer associate with? Are you more moldable to God’s plan and purpose for your life than you were before? This is the work of sanctification in the life of the Christian!

In marriage, the longer you are married with your spouse, the more you should get to know them. The longer you’re married, the more you know their likes, strengths, dislikes, and hobbies. As you know more about them, you grow in your love for them. As we grow in our walk with the Lord, our love for Him grows too. As we are sanctified and become more like Jesus, we live more like Jesus. The more we become like Jesus, the more we like the things that He likes! How can this happen? Jesus tells us the answer in John 15, we must remain in Him

John 15:4–5 CSB

4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

Whenever we remain in Him, we have a deep union with Him and we will grow to reflect His image even more day in and day out.

Glorification

The past tense of salvation is justification - we have been saved. The present tense of salvation is sanctification - we are presently being saved. The future tense of salvation is glorification - we will be saved.

This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to some people. They think that they are saved from something - if this is all that salvation is, what will I be saved from? It’s been said like this before, I have been saved from the penalty of sin, I am being saved from the power of sin, and I will one day be saved from the very presence of sin itself! This will come whenever we are glorified.

The BFM shares this, “Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.”

What does this statement mean or share with us? That God’s plan of salvation isn’t just something that impacts us here in our earthly lives - it is something that will last for all eternity! Not only are we saved from going to hell, but we will one day be saved from its very presence. We will be glorified whenever Christ returns or whenever we pass away - the great news, though, is that this world and body are not the end. Paul speaks to this truth in 2 Corinthians 3 as he shares this

2 Corinthians 3:17–18 CSB

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

On this side of glory, as we look into this mirror, we see a picture and reflection of Christ. But due to our sin, that image is still flawed. Christians continue to sin and we’ll have to fight that temptation/urge the rest of our lives as Paul talks about in Romans 7. There will come a day, though, when we won’t have to fight this urge because we will have our glorified bodies.

Conclusion

Regeneration, Adoption, Justification, Sanctification, Glorification. Salvation is a wonderful thing that we must celebrate because it is fully the work of God. Each aspect of salvation is God’s work - not our own. After all, we are saved by grace, through faith, in Christ, not as a result of our works.

Salvation is something only found through Christ. We must stand on the exclusivity of the Gospel as we’ve studied this evening. Whenever people start saying that there are multiple ways to be saved or that you can be saved through works rather than through faith in Christ, we have to reject such a notion and point people to Scripture. Scripture shares with us that our greatest problem is our sin and the only solution to that problem is a Savior.

He is our only hope - but He is a living hope. Just as everyone needs Jesus, salvation is good news for every human being. We know that some will reject Christ as Lord, but we also know that whenever we preach the Gospel, some people will repent and be saved. Who is someone you know who needs to hear the Gospel? The most important thing you can do as a human is to know Christ as Lord - the second most important thing is to bring as many people to heaven with you as you can.