Have You Been Saved? Part 1

Have You Been Saved?

Story about Berne “have you been saved”?

• How do you get saved?
• When do you receive salvation? Is it when you repent… when you get baptized… At Death… At Second Coming of Christ?
• What is salvation? Is it a place you go to… is it a feeling… is it a reward for being good…
• Where do you find the topic discussed in the bible?

Salvation: to be saved/rescued from danger, death, destruction etc. In the NT scriptures, it means saved from the consequences of your sins. That consequence is death. The popular view of death is that a person’s soul or spirit leaves their body and is floating out there… in heaven, nirvana, as a ghost, in hell etc. These popular ideas are not found anywhere in God’s word.

The biblical meaning of death is, in the end… permanent destruction of YOU! … after death there is nothing.

Why Do You Need Saved?

• Romans 3:23 that means everybody
• Romans 6:23 notice that these are presented as opposites

Death VS. Eternal Life

Your works earn you death because your works (what you have done in your life) include sin. Eternal life is a gift meaning: a) its something you don’t already have b) you have not earned it… you receive it by the grace of God.

Key verses on immortal soul

• Matt 10:28 death and destruction include body & soul… it is subject to judgment and permanent destruction
• Romans 2:7 immortality to be sought
• I Corinthians 15:53-54 that which the saved put on

What is your status

• All have sinned… including you
• The penalty for sin is death
• You do not have within you any form of immortality or soul existence that lives on after you die

God has immortality. He possesses it and the good news is… He wants to give it to you as a gift, through His grace.

At this point, you might be saying “WOW… this is great God’s gonna give me eternal life”! This’ll be awesome, I feel wonderful already… WOO HOO”…

But there is a problem. Not a little problem either… actually, it’s a HUGE problem… you’ve got a criminal record… And your criminal record puts a barrier between you and the holy righteous God… your sins have cut you off from access to God. Isaiah 59:1-2.

You say… then I’ll do everything I can to fix my relationship with God. I’ll forsake my former way of life… I’ll immerse myself in His word… learn his way and follow it with all my heart from this point on!

Romans 7:7 the law tells you what sin is so you know what you have to repent of

Romans 7:13 that you recognize sin for what it is, why it has to be punished by death, how you ended up under the death penalty for taking part in it.

You’ve made some real progress and turned your life around! However,  I have some bad news. I hate to have to tell you this but something is still missing… the barrier between you and God is still there.

Law Keeping Does Not Fix The Problem

Romans 3:20 keeping the law today (even for the rest of your life) does not cleanse you from, redeem you from, or make up for sins that have already been committed. Keeping the law will not make anyone right with God… remember its purpose is to define sin for you so you know how you should conduct your life AND how you have offended God.

Example: let’s say you slander someone (saying something horrible or mean about someone that’s not really true)… later you read in the law “you shall not give false testimony against your neighbor (#9 NIV)”. You are convicted that this commandment is true and you are committed to following this law from this point forward. You are careful with your tongue and never utter a slanderous word again… the barrier is still there. Obedience now does not pay the penalty for sins committed in the past.

If I murder someone… then repent and never murder someone again… I’m still a murderer, right?

Today’s obedience towards God is merely what was required of you all along. And actually, it required of everyone who has ever lived whether God had revealed the truth to them or not, whether bible knowledge was part of their culture or not. Romans 1-2.

BOTTOM LINE – and it’s a point of logic that should be easily grasped – AND its what the United Church of God teaches… all the good works and law keeping in the world from this point on cannot justify you for your past guilt and will not reconcile you to God.

What is your status

• All have sinned… including you
• The penalty for sin is death
• You do not have within you any form of immortality or soul existence that lives on after you die
• God is willing to give you eternal life
• There is an unfixable barrier between you and God because of sin
• Law keeping won’t justify you before God

What Does Justification / Justify mean?

Justify: to pronounce, accept, and treat as just - HEB (sadeq) Greek (diako)

1. Not liable for the penalty due under the law
2. Entitled to the privileges of those who have kept the law
3. Therefore to justify is a judicial act of administering law… the judge declares a verdict of acquittal and thereby excludes condemnation

Justification settles the status of the person being judged, Deut 25:1

For justification to make sense you must be convicted of these basic premises:

1.  

Conviction of these basic premises comes from the Holy Spirit

There is a judgment

 

1. The standard is the law
2. Lawbreaking is punishable by death
3. God is the judge… and He is just

Lets Look at the Justness of God

Because God is just, to remain just He must administer justice fairly, according to the truth, on the basis of righteousness… only justifying/acquitting those who have kept His law…  Exodus 23:7

Now you know why He cannot just let you off the hook. If He lets you go unpunished what about everyone else? To be fair wouldn’t He then have to let everyone go unpunished. And if God does not punish disobedience, evil and wickedness then what is He? Is He holy, righteous and good?

He must administer justice fairly, according to the truth, on the basis of righteousness… only justifying/acquitting those who have kept His law… 

MAJOR PROBLEM… this category of righteous men and women is empty… Romans 3:9

Back to You

You may have seen the light and changed your ways, you’ve started to obey God’s commandments… but the barrier remains… the penalty for your crime has not been paid. Think of it as a vast canyon… you are on the cliff on one side and God is on the other… you need to cross over to have any hope of escaping permanent death… but you have no way to get across. It seems as though you are completely helpless…

There is a way the relationship between you (the one who has sinned) and the perfectly just God who must and will execute judgment in accordance with the law. HOW? Through Jesus Christ! He comes across the divide to get you and bring you across.

Jesus lived a perfect sinless life – there was no penalty of death over Him. Yet, He suffered and died to pay a death penalty… but not his own. He died to pay the penalty for your sins. He died so that you could be justified and reconciled to God. He died so that the eternal life God has to give can be given to you.

Romans 3:25-26 – Jesus’ Death Satisfies The Demands of Justice. That God can remain just but still justify the repentant and faithful person.

Note: Jesus’ life can pay for your sins, my sins, her sins, his sins… because the Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [and] by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Now We Know That You Can Be Justified

• How? … by keeping the law? NO
• How?... by the blood of Jesus Christ

But you have to claim it! And you claim it through faith… Rom 3:21-24

1. You are convicted of God’s truth and turn away from the disobedience that leads to  death
2. Believe that the death of Jesus Christ can and will serve payment for your own death sentence
3. You demonstrate your conviction and your faith through baptism into His death so you sins and their penalty can be removed

Now you are justified… made as if you are righteous (or without sin). This is what righteousness apart from the law (apart from law-keeping) means. It is in this way that Jesus is your righteousness (refer to continuum diagram… what about your life moving forward). Romans 3:27-31

You are justified… but have you been saved from death? Justify and Save are different words and they mean different things. Justification means you are no longer condemned to death as a penalty for breaking the law… but does that mean the same as God giving you the gift of eternal life?

Romans 5:9 … being saved is something yet to come

Consider this: your justification and reconciliation with God is like a restoration to ground zero, like Adam before he sinned. Adam was at that point not under the death penalty for sin (he could be theoretically considered just) … would he then have lived forever in the flesh if he never at any point disobeyed and sinned against  God? – No.

If so then why would there have been another tree in the garden… the TREE OF LIFE Gen 3:22

The flesh was always meant to be a temporary state (flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God). Flesh and blood Adam did not have eternal immortal life in him any more than you or I do. The best case scenario for Adam would be to eat of the tree of life and gain eternal life. But it never happened and once he sinned he was separated from God and the Tree of Life.

Perhaps we could say that death came into the world through Adam in that through his disobedience, he, and all subsequent humanity was cut off from free access to the Tree of Life.

And salvation is about getting back to that Tree Of Life – Stay tuned for Part II