A Perfect Salvation

Q: What does the Bible say about salvation?

The Bible teaches that salvation is a perfect and complete work accomplished by Christ through His suffering and sacrifice. The Bible reveals that salvation is not a partial work but a perfect one made through Christ's voluntary suffering and death on the cross. Hebrews 2:10 declares that Christ, as the captain of our salvation, was made perfect through suffering. This means that His sacrifice was sufficient to redeem those for whom He suffered, ensuring that their salvation is complete and perfect. It is not conditioned on our works but fully reliant on the perfect righteousness and obedience of Christ, who fulfilled all the requirements necessary for redemption.

Q: How do we know the perfection of Christ's sacrifice is true?

The perfection of Christ's sacrifice is affirmed throughout Scripture and is marked by His resurrection and exaltation. We know that Christ's sacrifice is perfect because He completed the work of redemption through His suffering and rose from the dead, demonstrating His victory over sin and death. Hebrews 9:12 states that He obtained eternal redemption with His own blood. Furthermore, after accomplishing His work, Christ took His place at the right hand of the Father, signifying that the sacrifice was accepted and sufficient. Additionally, God's promise that the gifts and callings are without repentance, as seen in Romans 11:29, affirms the permanence and perfection of His work on our behalf.

Q: Why is the concept of a perfect salvation important for Christians?

A perfect salvation assures Christians that their redemption is complete and eternally secure in Christ. The concept of a perfect salvation is vital for Christians because it underpins the assurance of eternal life and peace with God. If our salvation depended on our actions or abilities, we would live in constant uncertainty regarding our standing before God. However, because Christ has perfected our salvation through His obedience and sacrifice, we can rest in the truth that our salvation is not subject to change or failure. Hebrews 10:14 assures us that He has perfected forever those who are sanctified, highlighting that our relationship with God is secure in His grace and completed work. This understanding not only brings comfort but motivates us to live in gratitude and obedience out of love for our Savior.

Q: What does the Bible teach about the conditions of salvation?

The Bible teaches that salvation is unconditional in that it relies solely on God’s grace and Christ’s work, not on human efforts. According to Scripture, salvation is conditioned not on our works or efforts but entirely on God's sovereign grace and the completed work of Christ. As stated in Ephesians 2:8-9, we are saved by grace through faith, which is itself a gift from God. The conditionality of salvation is rooted in God's promises, where He meets all the requirements necessary for our redemption. The perfect salvation accomplished by Jesus assures us that we do not contribute anything to our salvation; it is Christ's perfect sacrifice that guarantees our standing before God, ensuring that we are not lost or forgotten but fully secured in His eternal covenant.

Thank you, Caleb. I love you, brother. And I love you all. It's such a blessing. Every time I come, I feel like I just saw you yesterday. We just are able to pick up right where we left off. And that's a great blessing to me. I thank you for that. If you'd like to open your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 2, we're going to look at a verse of scripture there.

Todd opened that message that we just were blessed to hear by saying that he wanted it to be a comfort. And I thought about what the prophet Isaiah, what the Lord told the prophet Isaiah when he said to him, comfort ye, comfort ye my people and speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Tell them their warfare is accomplished. I hope you were comforted by that message. I was greatly comforted.

That the Lord has made me able to deny that I had anything to do with my salvation. That he has made me able to take up Christ and him crucified as my only life and rule of life. and that he has enabled me to follow after him, to look to him as the only hope of my salvation. Thank you, brother. A lot of the things that Todd said at the very beginning about the person of Christ being God, I had in my notes to say. Let me say amen to all of that you said about the Lord Jesus being God.

And over 600 years before the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the scripture tells us in John chapter 12, that the one that Isaiah saw high and lifted up, whose train filled the temple, the one whom the seraphim hovered over his throne and cried, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts. The Lord tells us in John 12 that Isaiah saw Christ. That was the Lord Jesus that he saw. His birth in Bethlehem was not the beginning, No, the word was made flesh and the word dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten, full of grace and full of truth. And I wanted to make an emphasis of that before I read this verse. I've titled this message, A Perfect Salvation. Hebrews 2 at verse 10.

For it became him, speaking of Christ, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation, perfect through suffering. Now we won't read all the surrounding verses, but we know from all that scripture tells us about the Lord Jesus that he wasn't made perfect because he died on the cross. He perfected salvation for his people by his death on Calvary's cross. As the Son of God, as the eternal second person of the triune Godhead, he has always been perfect. And yet, by his suffering at Calvary's cross, he perfected for his people, those who he brought into glory, he perfected their salvation. I'm so thankful that we have a perfect Savior who has performed a perfect salvation. One of the greatest underestimates that we hear from the lips of sinners is that I'm not perfect. What an underestimation that is of who we are.

God said, when I look down from heaven, I see that every thought and imagination of the heart of man is only evil, and that continually. Now that's God's estimation of us. We have this false view of ourselves if we think that we're not perfect, as if perhaps there are some things that we do that are close to it. And if someone thinks, well, you know, every thought and imagination that I have is not evil continually. The only reason that we think that way is because we're comparing one thought to another thought. We're comparing one imagination that we might have to another imagination. God's comparing us to God. And his estimation is that every thought and every imagination of the heart is only evil and that continually.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Oh, how far from perfect we are. Everything in our lives falls short of his glory. And yet what I want you to know tonight and I know most of you know this, is that God requires perfection. He requires a perfect salvation. He requires a perfect righteousness.

We often hear someone say, well, I'm doing my best. Well, first of all, that's just simply not true. It's not true. And even if we were able to achieve our best efforts, man at his very best state is altogether vanity before God. So not being perfect and trying to do my best is not going to be sufficient. We've got to have a perfect Savior who accomplishes for us a perfect salvation. Someone might say, well, you know everybody makes mistakes. Well, that statement is nothing more than trying to put a pretty bow on a box of dung. You know, what we do is, we are a mistake. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Let's read this verse again.

For it became him, for whom are all things. Everything came from him and everything is for him. And by whom are all things, he created all things. And he created salvation in bringing many sons into glory. He was made the captain of their salvation. And he made the salvation perfect by his suffering. By perfect, what I mean is that there's nothing partial about what the Lord Jesus did. He did a perfect work. He completed the work of salvation.

There's nothing conditional, at least not that is conditional on our part. All of the conditions necessary for many sons to go to glory through the perfect salvation that he accomplished, he met. And so this salvation from our side, is not conditioned by anything we do. It's not something that he did part way that we have to finish.

And this perfect salvation that the Lord Jesus accomplished for his people is not temporary. It's not temporary. It's eternal. A perfect salvation. Nothing was left to chance. Nothing was left up to the will or the whims of men. The Lord Jesus accomplished a perfect salvation by the perfection of his person and the perfection of his work.

There's a story in 1 Kings about King David, who is a beautiful type of Christ. David comes back from a battle against the Amalekites with his men and he finds in the city where he had left, where they had all left their wives and children, some distance from Ziklag, they saw the smoke rising and their hearts sunk and they got to the city and found out that the Amalekites had come in. and taken away all of their wives and all their children, all their cattle. And his men wanted to kill him. And David comforted himself in the Lord. And David, as a type of Christ, got his men together and went after the Amalekites.

Long story short, the end of the story is David recovered all. He recovered everything. Every wife of all the men, every child, all the cattle, all the spoils, he brought it all back. He didn't leave anything behind. We have a savior like that. One who is able to accomplish and who did accomplish a perfect salvation for his people. James chapter one says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights.

With whom there is no variableness, he doesn't change. I am the Lord, and I change not, and therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed." We have an immutable God. There's no variableness in the giving of his gift or in the perfection of his gift. And he also goes on to say, James goes on to say, and in whom there is no shadow of turning. He doesn't change his mind. The gifts and the callings of God are without repentance.

In other words, what he does, he does eternally. The salvation that our Lord accomplished is a perfect salvation. We take hope in knowing that when the gospel is preached, that the word of God will not return unto him void. It will accomplish the purpose for which he sends it. And I'm so thankful for that. It's God's word that he blesses. It's not the man preaching the word, it's the message. And yet we also know from John chapter one that the word was made flesh. And the word, the living word of God, whom we don't separate from the written word, dwelt among us.

And when the Lord Jesus, as the living word, returned back to his rightful place in heaven and took his place where the father said, sit down here at my right hand until I make all thine enemies thy footstool. When the Lord Jesus returned back into glory, he took with him all the names of those for whom he lived and died. He did not return into his father void. The scripture tells us that those for whom Christ died are seated right now in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What a perfect Savior. What a perfect salvation we have. There was nothing partial about it.

It wasn't that God did his part and now we have to do our part. The last thing the Lord Jesus said when he bowed his mighty head on Calvary's cross is, it is finished. Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. He finished the work of redemption. He paid the full price for all the sins of all those whom he came to save. And he offered to his father himself The Lord Jesus is not making an offering of himself to us to be accepted or rejected by us. He offered himself to his father. And the father saw the travail of his soul and the father said, I'm satisfied. It's finished. Everything that God required, the Lord Jesus finished. A perfect salvation.

That's what David said when he said, although my house, David had a mess of a home. Many of us suffer with that from time to time or, you know, maybe all life. Um, but more so than that, I believe Dave was talking about the tabernacle of his own flesh. Although this house be not so with God, it's not as it ought to be.

Yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, and that covenant was ordered in all things, and that covenant was sure. And David said, this is all my salvation, this is all my desire. The work that the Lord Jesus performed was perfect. His salvation was perfect.

Judah stood before his father Jacob. Remember they, Joseph had been sold into slavery and Jacob thought that Joseph was dead. Simeon now has been left behind in Egypt. And Joseph, whom the brothers did not know at this time, said, don't come back without Benjamin. And so Judah went before his father and said, we can't go. They were starving. There was a famine in the land. They had to have food from Egypt. Joseph was their savior. And Jacob said to his son Judah, he said, Joseph is no more, Simeon's gone, and now you want to take Benjamin?

And Judah, another type of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the lion of the tribe of Judah, said to his father, I will be surety for him. of my hand thou shalt require him. If I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever." Now surety is one who provides everything necessary for a covenant to be completed. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did when he went to the cross. He provided everything for his people. And when Judah said, I will be surety for him.

And, and, and, and you can, you can blame me if I don't bring him back. We have in that statement, a, a glorious type of Christ going before his father. I'll be surety for them. I'll bring them back. Is there any possible way that God the Father would hold Christ to blame for not having brought his whole bride back with him? No. No. He accomplished what he came to do. He prevailed.

I said that the Lord Jesus is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. We see that picture of him in the book of Revelation when John wept because there was no one worthy to open the books. The books had to be opened. There's been some discussion about what book that is. Is it the Lamb's Book of Life? Is it the Book of God's Decree? Is it God's Word? It's all three. It's all three.

If somebody doesn't open, if God doesn't open this book, we won't understand it. We won't see Christ. If the Lord Jesus doesn't unseal the book of God's decrees, then none of the purpose of God will be accomplished. And if he doesn't unlock the secrets to the land's book of life, no one will be saved. And John began to weep. He thought there's no hope. If the book remains sealed, there's no hope.

And the angel said to John, weep not, John, for the lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed. He is able to unlock the seals of the book. We have a Savior who didn't provide just a partial salvation. He prevailed. He is the surety of his people. He brought them all home. He didn't leave any part of it up to us.

Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14 says, for by one offering, that's the offering that he made of himself to his father, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. The one offering that he made of himself was what God required and was a perfect sacrifice, a perfect offering. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 says, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

In the Old Testament, worship, the one piece of furniture that is that is not seen in the tabernacle or in the temple as a chair. Why, the priest's work was never done. They were always making sacrifices. But the one piece of furniture that stands center in glory is a throne. And the Lord Jesus, as our high priest, sat down on that throne because he perfected forever them that are sanctified.

He performed perfectly what his father required. There's a river that we must cross between this life and the life to come. I need that river to have a bridge that goes all the way across. If that river only has a bridge that goes halfway, if God's counting on me to finish the work, to do something that's still missing, I'm certain of this, I'm not gonna get it right. I need a perfect savior who does it all and performs a perfect sacrifice. The captain of our salvation, perfected salvation by his suffering. It wasn't a partial work, it was a completed work, it was a finished work. And it wasn't a conditional work. It's conditioned on everything that God does. If God doesn't elect a people, no one will be saved. You did not choose me, I chose you. When did he choose his people before the foundation of the world? If he doesn't elect, if there's no election, there's no salvation. It's dependent upon the Lord Jesus working out a perfect righteousness by a perfect obedience to his father and by making a perfect sacrifice. Our salvation is conditional. It's conditional on the love of God. Jacob I have loved. Jacob is the church. Jacob is those whom God has saved. Esau I have hated.

If God doesn't love us, then there would be no salvation. It's the first cause of everything. So our salvation is conditional, but here's the glory of it. All the conditions that God required, God provided and fulfilled. Sometimes we hear people say, well, you know, If you believe, then God will save you. That's a condition placed on man. The gospel of God's free grace in the perfect work of Christ doesn't say, if you believe, God will save you. This salvation says, I have saved you and you will believe. We hear people say, well, if you repent, that's a condition. If you repent, God will forgive you. No, God says, I have forgiven you, and you shall repent. Well, if we serve God, he'll bless us. Now, God says, no, I have blessed you, and you shall serve me. I will, and you shall.

Everything that God requires, God provides. You know, our marriage is in this life. are a covenant. A covenant is a promise. But it's a covenant of works. The relationship that you have with your husband and with your wife, if you're both believers, you depend upon God's grace every day and you're thankful for it. But your relationship is a covenant of works. You made a promise. You both made a promise.

And marriages often dissolve because someone wasn't faithful to their promises. That's not possible in the marriage that the bridegroom has with his bride. He makes sure. It's a covenant that he bears the responsibility for both sides, and when his wife is unfaithful to him as we so often are. When we believe not, he remaineth faithful for he cannot deny himself. He keeps his wife in that covenant relationship with him. His marriage to his church is not conditioned by something that we do.

It's not a covenant of works. It is a covenant of grace. Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 9. who hath, notice the past tense, who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

That's what David was talking about. When he said, he made with me an everlasting covenant. God, the father promised to give his son a bride. God, the son promised to his father to redeem his bride. God, the Holy Spirit. This is before time was before anything was ever made. Entered into that covenant promise with the father and with the son and said, I'll make them willing in the day of my power.

I'll go. and I'll give them faith, and I'll cause them to come, and they'll all be saved. What a perfect salvation. It's perfect in that it's not partial. It's perfect in that it's not conditional. Someone said, well, is it not conditioned on our faith? Todd, you quoted this earlier. I want us to look at it a moment. John chapter one, John chapter one. Is our salvation not conditioned on our faith? Doesn't the Bible say in John 1, verse 12, but as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. And I want to emphasize the verb in the next verse, which were born. which were born.

How did we receive Him? We received Him because the Spirit of God did a work of grace in our hearts causing us to be birthed into the kingdom of God, causing us to be made alive. That's what the Lord said to Nicodemus. Nicodemus, you can't see the kingdom of God except you be born of the Holy Spirit. You've got to be born again. This new birth, a sovereign work of God, when the Holy Spirit takes the message and the truth of Christ and causes us to look, to believe in Christ, that new birth. Call upon the name of the Lord and thou shalt be saved, yeah. Isn't that a condition?

How shall they call upon him in whom they've not believed? You see, calling upon Christ is not the means to faith, it is the evidence of our faith. And faith is not the means of our salvation, it's the means of our new birth. How can they call upon Him in whom they've not believed? And how can they believe on Him in whom they've not heard? And how are they going to hear without a preacher? And how are they going to preach unless God sends them? The hearing ear and the seeing eye is from the Lord. Oh, what a perfect salvation.

We don't bring anything to the table. We bring our sin before God. We, we confess to him that. Well, first John chapter one, verse nine. If we confess our sins and that word confess means to agree with God, agree with God. What does God say? Well, we're sinners. Everything about us is sinful.

I heard someone ask recently, have you made a list of your sins and repented of all of your sins? That's not possible. You don't know them all. And in the question, they were suggesting that you've turned from all those sins. We repent of our sins when God changes our minds about what sin is. And we are able to agree with him that we are sinners. Turn with me to Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3. And look at me at verse 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done. The law made nothing perfect. The law can't make us perfect. Not by works of righteousness which we have done.

But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We're justified by faith. We're justified by grace through faith, yes. No one's saved without faith. But that faith is a gift of God, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. God is the one who gives us faith and makes, you see, he keeps all the conditions required for salvation, he provides, he fulfills. Turn with me to Zechariah, right towards the end of your Old Testament. Zechariah chapter 4.

Zerubbabel was the one who brought the children of Israel from Babylon back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and to reestablish worship. And Zerubbabel's name means born in Babylon. And this world in which we live is referred to as Babylon over and over again in the scriptures. And the Lord Jesus was born of a woman, made of a woman, under the law to redeem those who are cursed by the law.

So this picture of Zerubbabel is a picture of Christ. And look, look at verse, Look at verse six, in Zechariah chapter four. Then he answered and said unto me, saying, this is the word of the Lord undeservable, saying, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, it is of God that showeth mercy. This new birth is a work of God's spirit.

Who art thou, O great mountain? Now what is that mountain? Well the Lord said if you had faith as a mustard seed you could say into this mountain be cast into the sea. Where did God put our sins? He put them in the depths of the sea. What is our sin? What is our unbelief compared to Zerubbabel? Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace, unto it. This salvation is not conditioned by something we do. It is a free gift. It is by God's free and sovereign grace that we're saved.

He meets all the conditions. Look at the next couple of verses. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands shall also finish it, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. He started it, he's the alpha. And he will finish it. He is the omega.

He's the first and the last, the beginning and the end of our salvation. And all of the conditions required in order for us to be saved, the Lord Jesus fulfills them. So this perfect salvation is not It's not partial. It's a whole salvation. It's a finished salvation.

And it's not conditioned on something we do. It's conditioned on what he did. And the third point that I want to make about this perfect salvation is it's not temporary. It's not temporary. The gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. He doesn't save and then take it back. He doesn't save for a period of time.

The life that he gives us is eternal life. It is eternal life. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to me is greater than all. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my father's hand." God gives faith to believe. He maintains that faith.

And he brings many sons, as we read in Hebrews 2, verse 10. By this perfect salvation, he successfully brings many sons to glory. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 12 says, by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained, when the Lord Jesus took his rightful place in glory, ascended back into heaven, having obtained eternal redemption for us. The redeeming work that the Lord Jesus accomplished by his shed blood is not a temporary work. His salvation is eternal. He accomplished it for all of glory. One more passage of scripture I'd like for you to turn with me to, if you will. Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Will you open your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter three.

Verse 14, I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. God doeth it. That man shall fear before him. To bow in worship and to believe God is the fear of God. Nothing can be added to our salvation. The Lord has concluded this book with if any man add to the prophecies of this book, the curses of this book will be added unto him. And if any man take from this prophecy, whole of Scripture, then His name will be not in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's the Lord's stern warning. You can't add to or take away from the perfect work of redemption that the Lord Jesus accomplished. It wasn't a partial work. It wasn't a conditional work. It wasn't a temporary work. It was a finished work. all of grace and it is eternal. The captain of your salvation made our salvation perfect through his suffering.

A Perfect Salvation

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about salvation?

How do we know the perfection of Christ's sacrifice is true?

Why is the concept of a perfect salvation important for Christians?

What does the Bible teach about the conditions of salvation?

Sermon Transcript

About Greg Elmquist

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A Perfect Salvation

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about salvation?

How do we know the perfection of Christ's sacrifice is true?

Why is the concept of a perfect salvation important for Christians?

What does the Bible teach about the conditions of salvation?

Sermon Transcript

About Greg Elmquist

Comments

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