You may have heard that you need to be ‘saved’
in order to be Christian. But what does
it mean to be saved and how does being saved connect with Christianity? We will discuss what the Bible says on the
subject to understand it in depth. Before
you leave tonight, I hope you have a complete understanding of salvation in
order to compare yourself with what the Bible describes as saved person.
What is
sin?
·
What do you think?
·
What does the Bible say?
o 1 John 3:4
NLT
Everyone
who sins is breaking God's law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God
o Sin is opposed
to God
·
Adam & Eve brought sin into the world
o Genesis 2:
15-17
The Lord
God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of
the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not
eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
o Genesis
3:6
So when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the
eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its
fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he
ate
o They were
created with no knowledge of sin
o They were
made sinless & free, but their action brought sin into our world
·
We have inherited the knowledge & the curse
of sin from Adam
o Romans
5:12
Therefore,
just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so
death spread to all men because all sinned
·
We are all sinners
o Romans
3:23
For all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Do I need
saving?
·
What do you think?
·
Sin separates us from God
o Isaiah
59:2
It's your
sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away
and will not listen anymore
o God cannot
have a relationship with sin, or he would not be holy
·
God hates sin because it opposes His very
nature and is the work of the devil
o John 8:44
You are of
your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is
no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a
liar and the father of lies
·
Sin requires a payment for the penalty, but your
works can’t save you
o Romans
3:10
as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
o Romans 5:8
But God
demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.
o Ephesians
2:8-9
For by
grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is
the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast
·
Sin leads to hell
o Romans
6:23
For the
wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord
o Matthew
25:46
And these
will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
o Hell is
necessary to quarantine sin
How does
salvation work?
·
Jesus paid our price
o John 14:6
Jesus said
to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me
o 2
Corinthians 5:21
For our
sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God
o Jesus died
in our place when He was crucified on the cross
o We
deserved to be the ones placed on that cross to die because we are the ones who
live sinful lives
o But Christ
took the punishment on Himself in our place—He substituted Himself for us and
took what we rightly deserved
·
Mechanics of salvation
o Sealed
with the spirit
§ Ephesians
1:13
In him you
also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and
believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit
§ You are
the temple of God
o Keep his
commands & bear fruit
§ 1 John
3:24
Whoever
keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that
he
§ Matthew
6:17
You will
recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs
from thistles?
§ Galatians
5:22
But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
o Nothing can
separate you from God
§ Romans
8:38-39
§ For I am
sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord
§ NOTHING
can un-do your salvation
o When you
sin, repent & repeat
§ You don’t
have to keep repenting for salvation
·
Colossians 1:13-14
He has
delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of
his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins
§ You should
keep repenting
·
When we sin, we offend God and grieve His
Spirit
o Ephesians
4:30
And do not
grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption
·
When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said,
"Repent", he willed the entire life of believers to be one of
repentance – Martin Luther
·
We confess our sins to God—not to maintain our
salvation, but to bring ourselves back into close fellowship with the God who
loves us and has already forgiven us
·
Like a good marriage, our relationship with
God builds over time
·
The grace of salvation is offered through
Jesus
o Mark 1:15b
…repent
and believe in the gospel
o Repent
means to turn from
o Romans
10:9-10
because,
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one
believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved
o You must
confess his lordship & believe in his Godship
