Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to Reign of Grace Bible
Studies. This is a series of eight 30-minute
Bible studies on the subject, what is salvation? Do you claim
to be saved? Or do you know others whom you
think or claim to know are saved? Well, have you ever really considered
what the Bible, God's Word, teaches about salvation? This matter
of being saved is the main subject of the Bible. It includes everything
God does for His people and everything God does in His people by His
grace and in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. In its simplest
meaning, the word salvation means to be rescued from a dangerous
or threatening situation. Salvation is the deliverance
of our souls from sin. its curse, its dominion, its
consequences, and ultimately even from its presence and its
influence and its contamination. Salvation is a sinner's complete
restoration to God and holiness in the eternal glory of heaven.
It is complete reconciliation to God. So it is salvation from
the ultimate tragedy, the judgment and wrath of God. Now the Bible
teaches that because of sin all men and women without exception
who fell in Adam deserve and will experience the just and
ultimate wrath of God because the wages of sin is death. But it also teaches that salvation
is accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, who delivers God's people,
whom he loves, from the wrath to come. The gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So, what is salvation? Some people think of salvation
as simply believing, but they really don't know or understand
what they're required to believe. Others will add repentance, obedience,
or even things like being baptized, or making a profession of faith
and joining a church, while to others it's turning over a new
leaf, or going through a real moral reformation. People often
speak of getting saved. When did I get saved? Or when
did you get saved? Many speak of salvation in other
terms like accepting Jesus as your personal savior or inviting
Jesus into your heart. Now, people do not consider that
these statements are not in the Bible. In fact, there's not anything
like them in the Bible. And this has led many people
to think wrongly that salvation is a one-time event in their
lives, something that happened in childhood or youth when they
gave their heart to Jesus. But in the New Testament, the
verb to save appears virtually in every possible tense of the
Greek language. For example, there is a sense
in which those who are truly saved have always been saved
from the foundation of the world in the eternal mind and purpose
of God. There's also a sense in which
they who are truly saved were saved when Christ died on the
cross as their substitute and surety. There's also a sense
in which they who are saved were saved when they were born again
by the Holy Spirit and brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible also describes those who are saved as being saved
as they persevere or continue in the faith and as they are
being preserved by the power and grace of God in Christ. And
then finally there's a sense in which those who are saved
will be in the future saved when they are glorified in the consummation
of all things at the second coming of Christ. Salvation, you see,
involves all these workings of the Lord in eternity and in time. But as to a person's experience
of salvation, the Bible tells us, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved. It says, he that believes not
shall be damned. It also says, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But what does
it really mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Or what
does it mean to call upon his name? If we're to consider the
matter of salvation biblically, we must first ask ourselves,
do we have the true gospel? Now, the word gospel itself means
good news. The Bible tells us the gospel
of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. It goes on
to say, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. That's
in Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17. The Bible tells us that there
are false gospels that lead to death, so we must get the gospel
right. You know what comes in the name
of Christianity today has reduced the gospel to formulas like the
four spiritual laws or a set of questions that people ask,
and if a person answers yes to these questions and prays a certain
prayer, they tell that person, you're saved. And all this does
is create false Christians with false hopes and false assurance. There's nothing biblical about
that kind of method that is performed under a false gospel. And many
today quote a familiar verse, John chapter 3 and verse 16 as
the gospel and conclude from that one verse that the gospel
is God loves you and Christ died for you. But that is not the
gospel. You see, the true gospel is not
that God loves everybody and Christ died for everybody. Therefore,
it's your decision either to accept him or reject him. First
of all, that makes salvation conditioned on you, the sinner,
and not on Christ, the Savior. Secondly, why would you believe
or accept Jesus as your Savior and someone else not believe
or accept him? Is it because you're a better
person than one who refuses to believe? Are you less stubborn,
less obstinate, less rebellious? Well, the Bible tells us this
is not the case. The Bible teaches that man was
ruined by the fall when Adam disobeyed God and brought the
whole human race into a state of sin and death. In the book
of Romans chapter 5, In verse 12, we read, wherefore as by
one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned. All have sinned, all sinned,
literally. And that is when Adam fell, I
fell. He represented me and the rest
of us. As the result of our fall in
Adam, we are all born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins,
so that left to ourselves, we will not, of our own wills, bow
to God's way of salvation and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
for all salvation. And this is the case for all
without exception, unless a way of salvation can be found. Consider
that verse John chapter 3 and verse 16 Which says which says
for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life and Then in verse 17 it says for God sent not his son
into the world to condemn the world But that the world through
him might be saved Now the world of John 3.16, which speaks of
salvation, is the world of God's chosen people in Christ who eventually
are brought to believe in Christ. You see, salvation is not procured
and settled by their believing. but by the death of Christ, and
that's written prior to John 3.16 in verses 14 and 15, which
reads, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. you see that
verse teaches that the condition of salvation is the death of
christ the result is the believing sinner so this speaks of his
death on the cross for the sins of his people and jesus christ
is said to be in the bible to be the savior of the world not
because he's trying to save everyone without exception but because
he's the savior of all who are saved without distinction jew
and gentile In fact, in the Bible, the word world never means all
without exception. I'll give you an example. Case in point is 1 John 5, verse
19, which says, And we know that we are of God, and the whole
world lieth in wickedness, or literally, in the wicked one.
Now the whole world there certainly doesn't mean all without exception.
John himself says, we know that we are of God. Who are the we
who are of God? That's the ones whom God chose,
whom Christ redeemed, and whom the Holy Spirit has regenerated
in the new birth. The rest are in the wicked one.
So the gospel does not tell all without exception that God loves
them and Christ died for them. But now listen to me, there's
still good news. The Gospel does tell all who
hear it that God's love is proven and expressed in that He sent
His Son into the world to die for His people and that God's
love can only be found and experienced in the Lord Jesus Christ. Over
in the book of John chapter 3 and verse 36, listen to this. It
says, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And the wrath of God there is
the justice of God against sin. So we have to first make sure
that we know and believe the true gospel. Now let's begin
by stating four vital truths about salvation. Number one,
salvation is salvation from sin. As we've talked about, man has
been ruined by the fall. Death, hell, the wrath of God
are all the just penalties for sin. As we saw before, the wages
of sin is death. When we speak of Jesus Christ
as Savior, we're taught that he saves his people from sin. When the angel came to Joseph
to tell Joseph about Mary's pregnancy, the angel told Joseph concerning
Mary's child, he said, and she shall bring forth a son, and
thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. That's recorded in Matthew 1
and verse 21. You see, it's so important to
realize that we all need salvation from sin. We all need to be redeemed
from sin. So then salvation is salvation
from sin. Secondly, salvation must be established
upon righteousness. Now, if you have never thought
about or considered what I'm about to say, then you have not
heard and believed the true gospel of salvation. And that's this,
the greatest problem posed in the Bible is this, if God is
just, how can he forgive sin? You see, the moment anyone says
God saves sinners, or God forgives sin, There's a great theological,
legal, and ethical problem that cannot be solved by man. None
of the major or minor religions of man have ever been able to
solve this problem or even come close to it. Think about it. If God is holy, just, good, and
righteous, He cannot forgive sin any more than a human judge
can justly set a proven convicted murderer free by just simply
saying, I forgive you, go free. Now if I were to say to you that
God cast all sinners into eternal damnation and death, there's
no problem there. God is just giving us what we
deserve and what we've earned. This is what justice demands.
The problem arises when we speak of salvation for sinners. You see, God must be just in
all that he does. And when it comes to salvation,
which is a marvelous act of God's love and grace and mercy, God
cannot ignore or deny or even compromise His justice, His righteousness. Now righteousness is perfect
satisfaction to God's holy law and inflexible justice. So if
God forgives sinners, if God saves sinners, He must do it
in a way that honors His holy law and inflexible justice. He
must do it in a righteous way. He must be, as it's recorded
by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 45 verse 21, He must be a God
who is a just God and a Savior. So salvation from sin can only
be attained and maintained based on perfect righteousness. Perfect
obedience. and perfect satisfaction to God's
justice. Therefore, we see that no righteousness
of sinful man will do. First of all, men by nature have
no righteousness before God. And secondly, because we're born
spiritually dead, that is dead in trespasses and sins, and because
we are sinners, we cannot produce the righteousness required by
God's holy law. Over in the book of Romans chapter
3 and verse 10, It's written, it says, as it is written, there
is none righteous, no not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. Now who's he speaking of there?
He's speaking of all of us by nature. And down in verse 19
it says, now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it
saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be
stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. All the
law can do for a sinner is condemn him. expose him, even at his
best, to be sinful and deserving of death. And whenever sinful
men and women seek to be righteous before God by their works so
as to gain or maintain salvation, they are rejected. Why? Because
God is holy and just, and the best works of the best of men
do not equal perfect righteousness. The issue then in salvation becomes
the great question of all questions. How can sinful man be justified
before God? And how can a holy and just God
save sinners and remain true to himself? Or how can God be
just and still justify the ungodly? Consider what it means to be
justified. It means first to be cleared
of all guilt. And then, secondly, it means
to be actually counted, declared righteous in God's sight. Now, how can this be? Well, certainly
not by works of righteousness, which we do, have done, or try
to do. Where can we as sinners find
righteousness? Or a way to be righteous before
holy God? So from God's word we see, number
one, that salvation is from sin. Number two, that salvation must
be established upon righteousness. Now the third truth about salvation,
the biblical salvation, answers this problem. And that is, salvation
is totally, by God's grace, all in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way for man who has
been ruined by the fall to be redeemed, to be saved, is by
being redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He's the one and only
Savior from sin, and that righteousness only comes by Him. over in the
book of Romans chapter 5 and verse 21. It says that as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, the Bible presents salvation
as conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ, not conditioned on the
sinner. The success of salvation is dependent
upon two realities. Number one, the glorious person
of Jesus Christ, who he is, and number two, the finished work
of Jesus Christ, what he accomplished in his death. Consider the person
of Jesus Christ. When the angel revealed to Joseph
that the baby would be named Jesus because he shall save his
people from their sins, as recorded in Matthew 1.21, there was another
name revealed showing the deity of Jesus Christ. Matthew 1.23
says, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring
forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us. Jesus Christ is God and man in
one person and this had to be for him to be able to save his
people from sin. Jesus Christ as God-man was made
personally responsible, accountable to keep the law of God and satisfy
the justice of God through his obedience unto death, acting
in the place of his people as substitute and surety. And this
is the debt of the sins of his people imputed or charged, accounted
to him. Consider the finished work of
Jesus Christ. Now we want to preach God's love
to his people. Well, we see that in Jesus Christ,
God's love freely provided what his justice demanded, righteousness. When Jesus Christ did his great
work on the cross, one of the things he said was this, he cried
out as recorded in John 19 and verse 30, it is finished. Well, what was finished? Well,
mainly the redemption of his people. Righteousness was finished,
established. And this is the righteousness
of God revealed in the gospel. In fact, that phrase, the righteousness
of God, reveals both the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the one and only ground of salvation. It is the entire merit,
value, excellence of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus
Christ for his people. And this righteousness of God
has been freely imputed, charged, accounted to every one of God's
elect so that they are all, as the Apostle Paul wrote, justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Romans chapter 3 and verse 24.
Now you may ask, well what about faith in salvation? Well, the
Bible tells us that where righteousness has been imputed, faith will
be given to receive and submit to Christ as our whole righteousness
before God. Romans chapter 10 and verse 4
tells us that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Now as to our own personal experience
of salvation, when we are born again by the Holy Spirit under
the preaching of the gospel. When the Holy Spirit imparts
spiritual life and gives us faith, we believe, receive, rest in,
and lay hold of Christ. And we submit to him as our only
righteousness before God. So from God's word, we see number
one, salvation is salvation from sin. Number two, salvation must
be established upon righteousness. Number three, salvation is totally
by God's grace all in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
here's the fourth thing about salvation. Biblical salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. It is not God has done all he
can do, now the rest is up to you. In fact, salvation is not
a human work at all, and it is not based on, empowered by, or
secured by the works or the wills of sinful men. Sinful human beings
cannot save themselves and by nature do not want salvation
God's way Salvation is totally a divine work both of the Lord
and from the Lord and even the new birth Regeneration by the
Holy Spirit is totally of the Lord in the book of John chapter
1 and verse 12 The Lord, it is written, but as many as received
him, received Christ, to them gave he power, the right to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which
were born, not of blood, not of physical birth, nor the will
of the flesh, that is the works of man, nor the will of man,
but of God. You see, salvation is the work
of all three persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In the next lesson, we will begin by examining what I call the
four realms of salvation. And I call these realms because
salvation involves a kingdom in which Christ is the King and
His people are His subjects and citizens of the spiritual heavenly
kingdom. I hope you'll continue through
this eight-part study and if you would like to receive a free
copy of today's program or the entire eight-part study entitled,
What is Salvation? It's available upon request in
an attractive package set along with a complimentary booklet
on the same title. I hope you'll join us next week
as we continue exploring this subject, What is Salvation? We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 31707. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through
our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.