Back to: Foundations Of Faith
Foundations of Faith – Salvation
There is no greater wonder and truth that you will ever discover in the Word of God than that which pertains to the salvation of your soul. As you journey through its revelation, you will discover a love that comes from your Creator that can be no greater. You will come to understand how truly devastating your sin effected your relationship with God. You will come to define the measurement of God’s grace and mercy as measureless! And you will finally understand that any attempt to fully describe the wonderful bliss and eternity that awaits you with your Lord Jesus forever, goes far beyond our ability to reason and imagine!
The Need for Salvation
Sin leads to death
As a child, before knowing what is truly good or evil within the conscience God has given us, we have a live spiritual relationship between us and God as we see Paul explain this in the following;
(Romans 7:9), “I was alive once without the law…”
The apostle Paul tells us here that his relationship with God was alive before he knew and understood the law of God, before he knew what was right from wrong. If Paul had died as a child, he would have gone to Heaven to be with the Lord because his relationship between him and God was alive.
But Paul then continued to tell us that there came a time when he knew right from wrong, and chose to do wrong and sinned against God–
(Romans 7:9), “…but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died,”
At this point, something very terrible and devastating happened. The spiritually “live” and innocent relationship Paul had with God is now “dead”! That “lifeline” Paul had between God and him has been destroyed. God’s Word goes on to describe this in the following verses.
(Romans 7:9), “…but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.”
(Romans 6:23a), “For the wages of sin is death…
Like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the moment they chose to sin against God, their innocent and live relationship with God died because of their willful disobedience.
(Genesis 2:16-17), And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Paul became dead in trespasses and sin. This is what he meant when he wrote to the Christians at Ephesus and explained this truth in the following manner;
(Ephesians 2:1), “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sin;”
(v.5), “even when we were dead in trespasses.”
This is what Jesus meant when He said;
(Matthew 8:22), “But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
As much as God loved us, we have created a huge separation between us and Him.
It is so amazing that our Creator wants to spend an eternity with us, but we must accept what that eternity is to be like based on His terms. He knows what is best and what will make it the most wonderful experience we could ever imagine.
All have sinned
Some might think that they have not sinned because of their false understanding of what sin really is, but God’s Word teaches all who have come to a point of accountability in God’s sight has sinned and are in need of salvation.
(Romans 3:10), “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;”
(Romans 3:23), “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Some also might think that the sins they have committed were really not that bad in God’s sight. But watch what God thinks about that kind of reasoning;
(James 2:10), “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”
In God’s sight, lying is just as bad as murder. All Adam and Eve did was eat a forbidden fruit, but that disobedience was enough to destroy their relationship with a holy God.
We cannot save ourselves
Some think they can earn forgiveness by doing a certain number of good deeds, thinking this might be enough to outweigh the sins they have committed. God’s Word shows us we can never be good enough to earn salvation.
(Ephesians 2:8-9), “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.”
(Titus 3:5), “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…”
(Galatians 2:21), “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Some believe their good deeds will be placed on a scale on one side, and their sin on the other, and whichever way the scale tips, that determines whether they will be accepted into Heaven, What they tragically fail to realize is, just a “small” sin, like biting into a forbidden fruit like Adam and Eve did, is such a heavy sin, that all the good deeds they could have done in a lifetime would never lift the scale in their favor. It took the Creator to come to pay the price for their sin.
The means of salvation
Salvation is a GIFT from God. If we can earn salvation, then it is no longer a gift and Jesus went through all that suffering and death for nothing. Jesus had to become the ultimate payment that had to be made to bring us back to God. Two of the reasons why God chose it to be this way are;
- To show us how truly horrible and devastating our sin really is. It took the Creator to come and die for it. No other single payment for sin against a Holy God could be sufficient.
- To show us how measureless God’s love is for us.
(John 15:13), “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
(John 3:16), “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Under the Old Testament, the blood of bulls and goats were only a temporary “covering” in a spiritual sense and by no means were able to TAKE AWAY sin. All these sacrifices foreshadowed a much higher spiritual truth. They represented the need for the Son of God to become our Lamb of God to pay the price for the forgiveness of our sins and eternal salvation.
(Hebrews 10:4), “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.”
(Hebrews 9:12), “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
(John 1:29), “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
There is only One means and way to God, and that is by Jesus Christ.
(John 14:6), “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
The acceptance of salvation
Salvation can only come to the heart of an individual by the following;
- Confess – Truly acknowledge to God that you have sinned against Him and broke His law
(1 John 1:9), “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
- Repent – Confessing is acknowledgement that you sinned. Repentance comes from having a godly sorrow that works in your heart because you have sinned. It produces the desire to not only turn from future sin, but to also turn to God for all eternity.
(2 Corinthians 7:10), “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation…”
(Luke 13:3), “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
- Believe and Call – Believe and call on the name of the Lord to save you
(Romans 10:9-13), “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” … For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
We must truly confess our sins in sorrow, repent (turn away from them and turn to God) and say thank you to Jesus for dying for our sins and coming alive again to give us new life. When we choose to trust, love and follow Him, we move from being separated from God, to being forever with God. God lives in our hearts now and is always with us. He is our Heavenly Father loving, guiding, comforting and protecting us. We are now born again; made alive once again with God
(Ephesians 2:1-5), “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins…even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”
The Fruit of salvation
As one enters into a true relationship with the Lord Jesus, there will be noticeably good changes and new desires in that person’s heart to glorify God. The following are some of them;
- We not only have a new desire to begin to have faith in Jesus and His Word, but we now have a desire for that faith to endure and bring forth wonderful fruit in our lives.
(Luke 8:15), “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
- We now understand that we are saved by God’s grace through faith, and not of our own goodness. But when we do have that moment when we fail God and sin, we have a new desire to express our sorrow and confess to Him.
(1 John 1:9), “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
- We have a desire to fulfill Jesus’ request to publicly proclaim our faith in Him by baptism.
(Acts 2:41), “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized…”
- We now have the Holy Spirit in our hearts experiencing the wonderful change He brings.
(Galatians 5:22-23), “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”
- We now have a new desire to be a wonderful part of God’s family and help others.
(Acts 2:41-47) (1 Corinthians 12:12-26)
Salvation!
BUILDING A FOUNDATION THAT WILL NEVER CRACK!
I was lost, and now I’m found. AMEN!