Sermon Tone Analysis

Three Foundational Components of Salvation...

We are looking today at .

This is a passage many find difficult to understand.

But we will look at three foundational components of salvation that I believe will help us understand this text and this series.

Let’s begin by looking at our text.

So let’s jump right in...

Salvation involves a change.

Salvation involves a change.

This is fundamentally what happens at the core of who you are when salvation begins.

It’s what we talked about last time.

You are born again according to .

This takes place at a point in time.

The Scripture talks about it as...

A past event.

This is something that happened to you at a specific time, at a specific place.

The Scripture doesn’t give evidence of anybody just oozing into the Kingdom.

There is a specific point in time when we make the decision to trust Christ and God declares us righteous before Him.

He gives us a new heart.

He enables our faith to turn from sin.

All the things we talked about the last time together.

And the question we asked is, “Have you been born again?”

Let’s look at ,

This is something that has happened to you.

We have been saved.

A point in time.

The Bible often refers to this as...

Often referred to as justification.

It is something that happened to us that affects us now.

We are justified before God.

The language that the Scripture uses is at that point when we are born again, God declares us righteous before Him.

This justification occurs at a point in time.

Whether you are a 10-year old raised in a Christian home or a 40-year old with little or no exposure to the Gospel.

One may be a bit more dramatic than the other, but I assure you, the same thing takes place.

At the point of salvation, we are born again, and the Scriptutre refers to that as justification.

Salvation involves a change, and second...

Salvation involves a journey.

If we stop at justification, then we will miss biblical salvation.

We will understand it incompletely.

We won’t understand salvation as the Bible teaches it.

Salvation involves a change, and that leads to a journey.

That begins a journey, by which, we are made righteous, with God now conforming us into His image.

He is transforming us.

This is where for many, the lines get kind of blurred.

We are immediately declared righteous when we trust in Christ.

At the same time, this transformation that begins at salvation is not necessarily immediate, that all of a sudden everything is right, and everything is transformed.

We are declared righteous by God positionally at salvation.

But salvation is also...

A present process.

talks about how we are being transformed with ever increasing glory into the image of Christ.

We are being transformed.

So in a sense...

We are being transformed.

So in a sense...

We are being saved

Salvation is a one-time event, but it’s also a process.

Salvation is not static.

At the moment of salvation a number of things take place.

We’ve talked about a number of those.

But God does not expect us to remain as we are.

Just as stated, we are being transformed by the Spirit.

You may have a translation that reads, “which are saved”.

But that translation is a bit misleading.

That’s not what Paul wrote.

The Greek Textus-Receptus, the manuscripts upon which the King James is translated read differently.

It’s actually one word in the Greek - sodzomenois - it’s a verb, present tense, passive voice, participle, plural, dative, masculine.

I know that may not mean much to you, but a literal reading of the Greek (remember, the syntax in Greek is not the same as English) would be: “For the word of the cross to those perishing foolishness is but who are being saved to us power of God it is.”

If we unjumble it and read it with English syntax, the Greek would read, “For the word of the cross to those perishing is foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”.

Before we get too hung up on this distinction, just know that this more accurate reading in the Greek is in perfect keeping with the doctrine of salvation.

This aspect of salvation is...

Often referred to as sanctification.

1 Thessalonians

This passage goes on to list a number of things we should abstain from.

At the moment of salvation we are declared righteous before God, but daily, God wants us to be growing in sanctification.

So what we have is salvation is a past event, and a present process.

Then third...

Salvation involves a destination.

Not only is salvation a past event and a present process.

Salvation is also referred to as...

A future prize.

1 Corinthian

You see, Paul is talking about the goal of his salvation and running after the goal of his salvation.

It culminates our salvation when we are finally in the presence of God.

So if we take into account everything that is happening in our salvation, we can say we are saved, we are being saved, and...

We will be saved.

This is the picture that Scripture often refers to as...

This is the picture that Scripture often refers to as...

Often referred to as glorification.

We will be glorified with Him.

Let’s look again at ...

Paul says that our salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

What does that mean?

It doesn’t mean that we are still working on our salvation, or trying to earn it.

That is not what it means.

Instead, what it means is the future glorification, culmination of our salvation, is still to come, and we are closer now than when we first believed.

We have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved.

I’ve heard it put this way, “We have been delivered from the penalty of sin, we are being delivered from the power of sin, and one day, we will be delivered from the presence of sin.

Salvation is a one-time event.

We are not saved more than once.

Salvation is a process.

We don’t trust Christ one day and be expected to remain the same.