Salvation: God's Redemption Plan
Bedrock: Foundations of Faith • Sermon • Submitted
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For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Introduction
Introduction
Share examples of gifts they received that “kept on giving.” Examples might include a membership, season tickets, or an annual pass.
ASK: How did your appreciation for the gift change over time?
ASK: How did it compare to other gifts that didn’t keep on giving?
2. Transition to Bible lesson.
Salvation is the ultimate gift that keeps on giving. This session will examine our need for salvation, God’s provision of it, and some of the ongoing blessings that comes with being saved.
Our Sin Problem
Our Sin Problem
We learned in the previous session that sin destroyed Adam and Eve’s communion with God (Gen. 3:6–10). They could no longer walk and talk with Him like they did when they were sinless. Yet God didn’t give up on His relationship with them. He had a plan ready to set in motion to deal with sin and to restore His communion with sinners.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Adam passed his sin nature to his children and they to their children and so on for generation after generation so that all children are born sinners. To bear a child is to bear a sinner. Jesus, of course, had no earthly father and no inherited sin nature. He was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit.
So Adam’s problem is our problem too. The apostle Paul wrote to believers in Ephesus concerning their former condition. He wrote that
Every unbeliever is controlled by his or her sin nature.
Every unbeliever is controlled by his or her sin nature.
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
The “prince of the power of the air” is Satan. He works in unbelievers so that they obey their lustful sin natures that direct them to disobey God. Not every unbeliever is as bad as they could be, but all they think, say, and do is sinful to some degree. Unbelievers are unable to produce good works that earn God’s merit.
But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
ASK: What makes an unbeliever’s “righteousness” like a filthy rag? It is done in the flesh and therefore for sinful motives or reasons other than for the glory of God.
Nothing unbelievers do, not even the noblest of all deeds, earns merit with God.
God cannot erase a sinner’s debt based on the sinner’s good works.
God cannot erase a sinner’s debt based on the sinner’s good works.
The wage of the unbeliever’s sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Sinners stand condemned before God and are under His wrath (John 3:18). God will condemn all unbelievers to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.
The Great White Throne Judgment will take place at the end of time after God destroys our current earth. His judgment will be final.
There are no escape hatches in the Lake of Fire, and none of the unbelievers God sends there will get time off for good behavior.
There are no escape hatches in the Lake of Fire, and none of the unbelievers God sends there will get time off for good behavior.
God’s Salvation Solution
God’s Salvation Solution
Saved by Grace
Saved by Grace
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
The Old Testament sacrificial system called for repeated animal sacrifices and sprinkling of animal blood on the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle’s, and later the temple’s, Most Holy Place. Those sacrifices happened yearly on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). God manifested His presence in the Most Holy Place, so only the high priest could enter that chamber with the blood from the sacrificed animal. The animal sacrifices allowed the Old Testament Israelites to receive ritual cleansing from their sinful acts so they might participate in worshiping of God.
But no one could offer an animal sacrifice for salvation. An animal’s blood could never save a person.
But no one could offer an animal sacrifice for salvation. An animal’s blood could never save a person.
By contrast, Jesus shed His blood on the cross for the sins of the world. By His sacrifice, Jesus cleanses our “conscience,” meaning our hearts. He permanently removes sin, referred to as “dead works,” from our hearts and makes us righteous so we can serve God and commune with Him through prayer.
Jesus’ shed blood offers sinners eternal redemption.
Jesus’ shed blood offers sinners eternal redemption.
Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Peter wrote to Jews to emphasize they could neither earn nor purchase redemption. Only the precious blood of Christ cleanses sinners because only Jesus is without sin and was qualified to die in the sinner’s place.
“Grace” means “unmerited favor.” God’s gift of salvation is the ultimate example of God’s grace.
“Grace” means “unmerited favor.” God’s gift of salvation is the ultimate example of God’s grace.
He offers it to us at Christ’s expense. Jesus paid our sin debt in full (Heb. 9:26; 10:12). He bore the full brunt of God’s wrath. Isaiah wrote that God was pleased to bruise Jesus for our sin because it made salvation possible (Isa. 53:10, 11).
When Jesus rose from the dead three days after dying on the cross, He showed He had conquered sin and death.
When Jesus rose from the dead three days after dying on the cross, He showed He had conquered sin and death.
Jesus’ resurrection made God’s saving grace effective.
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
ASK: What would be true if Jesus hadn’t risen from the dead? We would still be in our sins and under God’s wrath with no hope of eternal life and nothing but eternity in the Lake of Fire in our future.
No event in all of history is as important and impactful as Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
Saved through Faith
Saved through Faith
God’s saving grace is available to all people, but how does one receive it? The simple answer is faith.
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
God saves all who have faith in, or believe in, Christ as the acceptable sacrifice for their sins.
God saves all who have faith in, or believe in, Christ as the acceptable sacrifice for their sins.
Faith is simply resting one’s hope in Christ. Anything added to faith, like good works or baptism, ruins the faith.
The content of pure saving faith is spelled out in Romans 10.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Confessing the “Lord Jesus” means believing Jesus is Lord. People who think Jesus was just a man won’t be saved. To be saved, one must recognize Jesus came to earth as the sinless Son of God who took on flesh, becoming the God-Man.
Saving faith also includes believing Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead by God’s power after three days in the grave. Those who believe Jesus didn’t die but rather swooned or passed out for a few days won’t be saved.
Finally, saving faith is a heartfelt decision rather than a mechanical set of words we say. Saying a prayer doesn’t save a person. To be saved, a person must decide to rest his or her hope fully in Jesus and accept Jesus’ payment for his or her sins.
ASK: Did you come to a point in your life when you realized you had made a mechanical rather than a heartfelt salvation decision? What were the circumstances that revealed your need to be truly saved?
When a person makes a salvation decision, he or she will share the decision and confess to knowing and trusting in Christ for salvation.
The one who believes in Christ becomes a child of God and receives everlasting life.
The one who believes in Christ becomes a child of God and receives everlasting life.
As children of God, believers are joint heirs with Christ
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
All believers have an incorruptible and eternal inheritance waiting in Heaven. That inheritance includes a glorified body, an eternal home (John 14:2, 3), and reward for service done on earth (1 Pet. 1:3, 4).
Believers’ Eternal Security
Believers’ Eternal Security
God’s Inseparable Love
God’s Inseparable Love
The apostle Paul reinforced the truth of eternal security. He wrote that nothing—no being, no force, no clever false prophet, no powerful persecutor, not even Satan—can separate the believer from God’s love.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah wrote of God’s everlasting love for Israel. God has the same love for believers today. Since God’s love never changes, believers can rest assured God will never withdraw His love from them. God will always love believers.
Nothing can separate the believer from God’s love.
Nothing can separate the believer from God’s love.
Furthermore, the “good work” God began in believers will continue until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6). God will work faithfully in believers’ lives until they are transformed into the image of His Son (Rom. 8:28, 29).
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
ASK: How were the readers of 1 John going to know they had eternal life? By reading the words John had written to them.
ASK: What should a believer who doubts his or her salvation do to know he or she is saved? Study God’s Word.
The Spirit’s Sure Seal
The Spirit’s Sure Seal
The Holy Spirit also keeps the Christian eternally secure. When a person receives Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside him or her (Rom. 8:9). The Spirit adds the believer to the Body of Christ and gives him or her special abilities to help the church until Christ returns (1 Cor. 12:7–13).
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
The Holy Spirit “seals” the believer until the “day of redemption.” The seal demonstrates God owns and secures the believer.
The Holy Spirit “seals” the believer until the “day of redemption.” The seal demonstrates God owns and secures the believer.
On the day of redemption, God will give the believer a glorified body. Note that the verse doesn’t say the Holy Spirit seals believers until the believer gravely sins against God or until the believer doesn’t feel saved anymore.
Point out the seal made from hot wax and the tool for imprinting it.
God gives the believer the Holy Spirit as His seal to prove that the believer belongs to and has an eternal relationship with God. God’s mark is set on our lives. We belong to Him. And since the Holy Spirit is the seal, it would be impossible to remove Him or replace Him. God the Spirit has all the power and authority of God the Father.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Paul was confident that nothing could separate us from God’s saving love. Life and death can't change God’s love for us. Angelic beings and powers can’t change God’s love. And nothing that could happen to us in the future would end God’s love for us. In addition, nothing in the space above or below the earth, including all the creatures, could separate us from God’s love.
Adam and Eve sinned and destroyed their relationship with God. God, though, didn’t give up on them. He had a plan of salvation already in place. Everyone needs salvation for we are all sinners. God sent Jesus to die on the cross and bear God’s wrath for us. He offers salvation to the world by His grace. We accept His offer by faith. Once we trust in Christ as our Savior, God’s everlasting love and the seal of the Holy Spirit assure us of our salvation.