Salvation

Hearing

Hearing the Gospel…

Not sure if you know or not, the “gospel” literally means “good news”, but in order for us to have the good news, there has to be bad news… and the bad news always begins with the reality of who God is. God is the Creator of everything. And He is holy…which means: set apart. And God is perfect (or whole), without any defect. And He is righteous…which means God always does what is right. And He is just. His justice is always fair.So, because God is the Creator; Holy, Righteous, Perfect and Just, we have a problem. We are none of those things. We are created by God (in his image), but we are fallen and broken and unholy…imperfect, unrighteous and unjust. Just as the Apostle Paul writes in Romans…“What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:9-12 Picture this….if we hung a chain from the ceiling illustrating that the chain represented our connection to God. Now, let me ask, “How many broken links (or sins) does it take to break the chain (or our connection to God)?” The answer: One. All it takes is one broken link or one sin to break our connection God. And all of us have sinned—at least once. All of us have broken our connection to God. Another thing we might tell ourselves is, “If I really clean up my act…that will be enough to connect me back to God.” Once again, as Paul writes…“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” Romans 3:20

So there it is. There’s the bad news. But here’s the good news. Here’s the gospel…

“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:21-26

Sin separates us from God. And what is sin? The biblical definition of sin is actually an archery term meaning: missing the mark. We have all sinned or missed the mark of God’s perfection. And the punishment for this is death. Someone has to pay for these mistakes. We all know, deep in our hearts, what justice is. When a wrong has been committed, someone has to pay for it.

The Good News is that Jesus, the Incarnation or God in the Flesh, the one who never sinned or missed the mark, took our place and paid for our mistakes. Jesus took on ALL our sin when he died on the cross. The Apostle Paul put it this way…

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:1-11

So, while we were still sinners…still living in our sinful way of life, God showed his love for us in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross. That’s GRACE. Grace is unmerited favor or getting something wonderful that you didn’t earn or deserve. And you can’t pay for it or earn it. All you can do is accept this wonderful, eternal gift. One of the best ways to remember the meaning of grace is this acronym: Grace= God’s Riches AChrist’s Expense.

 

Believing

Believing…
At some point, after hearing the Gospel, you believe in your heart that all this stuff is true. That God is holy. That you are separated from Him and that you can only be reconciled or reconnected back to God through Jesus. And that belief is so strong that you are “cut to the heart”. You have that utter realization that the only way back to God is through Jesus. This is the way some of the first people to hear the Good News felt… When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37 This “cutting to the heart” can only come from God. Just as Jesus says here… “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:44 Looking back over this, we Hear the Gospel, then Believe what we’ve heard and then we repent.

 

Repenting

Repenting…
To “repent” literally means to “turn away”. We must turn away from sin or turn our backs to sin…putting our backs to our old way of life. And when we turn from sin, we naturally turn towards God—doing a complete about face. As Jesus was spreading the Good News He said… “The time has come,” (Jesus) said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:15  The next logical step to repenting from our old way of life, from our old life of sinning is to share this change in our hearts or to confess to some other people what’s happened.

 

Confessing

Confessing…
Confession or to confess simply means to say it out loud—to say what is true out loud and publicly recognize that: God is holy and perfect and you are not. Confessing to other people means speaking to your belief that God has reconnected you back to Him through Jesus…because Jesus has taken your sin to the cross, and that you want to repent and turn away from your sin and your sinful past. Paul says it best here… “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 And so this journey to being a follower of Jesus begins with Hearing the Gospel, then Believing it, then Repenting for your past, followed by Confessing to some others, which leads to Water Baptism.