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The Salvation of Man
Of all
the beings that inhabit the planet
earth, only one was created in the image an likeness of God; man. As
Moses began the book of Genesis, he wrote, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And God
created man in His image" (Genesis 2:7; 1:27).
How
exactly was man created in the likeness and image of God? Certainly it
cannot mean that we were made in His physical image. Because in John
4:24, it is written that "God is a Spirit". And being a spirit, God has no physical body. So then how were we created
in God's likeness and image?
God is a being who has
personal volition and free moral agency, so man was created with those same
characteristics. God is a Spiritual being that will never die, so does
man have a spirit that will never die. God has compassion, and man was
created with that capacity. There are many ways that we have been
created in the image and likeness of God.
As God's creation, while
we are here on this earth, we have certain responsibilities. One of
the things God told Adam was to subdue the earth and have dominion over it.
We are the earth's stewards. Earth is our home, we are to care for it. But that's not all the
responsibilities that we have. Solomon wrote, "Let us hear the
conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for
this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring
every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or
whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). While we are here on this earth,
we are to give glory to God, we're to honor Him and we are to obey Him.
Whatever commandments He has given are for our ultimate benefit and more
importantly for our ultimate salvation.
When
God created mankind, He
placed Him in a beautiful garden paradise and gave him free will. When
you love someone, truly love them, you give them a choice of whether to obey
you or not. And by doing that, you learn from their obedience or lack
thereof whether they love you back or not. In fact, Jesus affirms this
very thing in John 14:15 where He
said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments."
Mankind started off in the
garden of Eden with only four commandments. They were told to:
1) Subdue the earth and have
dominion over it
2) Tend the garden of Eden
3) To reproduce and fill the earth with little Adams and little Eves.
That's pretty simple.
Those are all positive commands. But the fourth command was a negative
command. In other words, it was a "thou shalt not" command.
Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. God did not want them to have that knowledge. Having
that knowledge was not necessary in order for Adam and Eve to be capable of
obeying the four commands God gave them. And, of great significance,
having the knowledge of good and evil was not necessary in order for God to
hold them accountable for disobeying His commands. God told them that
if they ate of the fruit, they would surely die. This death included
spiritual death which is separation from God which happened that very day,
and then eventual physical death. He gave them a consequence for
disobedience.
The Bible defines sin as
lawlessness in 1 John 3:4. Another translation renders this as
transgression of God's law. When mankind disobeys God's commands, they
enter into a state of rebellion against God. When God gave Adam and Eve those four
commandments, He gave them law. Those four commands were the only law
God gave them. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God's law, they
transgressed it and sinned. When they disobeyed they were in Rebellion
to God's law, therefore they were in rebellion towards God and guilty of
lawlessness.
What does it mean to be in
rebellion to God? When one rebels or transgresses God's law or
will, they forfeit fellowship with Him. Isaiah wrote in chapter 59:2
that our sins separate us from God so that He Hides His face from us.
Ezekiel wrote in chapter 18:20, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die".
When man sins the soul of man dies, this is known as eternal separation from
God's presence or fellowship. At the moment of Adam and Eve's first
sin, their souls were doomed to everlasting separation from God. At
the moment of our first accountable sin, we were likewise separated from God's
fellowship. He turned His face from us and our soul was doomed to
everlasting separation from His presence.
The penalty for rebellion
against God is separation from His fellowship, His presence, His glory, His
protection, His life, His light, His love, His self. Scripture calls this
separation, simply, death. Our souls will never die. They will
exist forever, but existing separated from God is spiritual death.
God's divine nature demands
this penalty for rebellion.
God is absolutely just (Isaiah 45:21), which means always fair and always impartial.
There is only one penalty for rebellion against God's will and He demands it
to be payed by everyone who ever sinned. Well who sinned and who
didn't? Just who is guilty of sin? 1 Kings 8:46 reads, "there
is no man that sinneth not". In the new testament, Paul wrote in
Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God".
There are no degrees of sin.
One sin is not worse than another.
The book of Revelation gives us a list of those who will be eternally
separated from God, Revelation 21:8, "the fearful, and unbelieving, and
the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth
with fire and brimstone: which is the second death". This sounds like a really evil
bunch of people. But Adam and Eve's souls were doomed to death for
eating something God told them not to eat. That's like us telling one
of our children today that we will disown them and thrust or force them from
our presence forever if they eat a cookie they are not supposed to eat.
There are no degrees of sin. One sin is not worthy of a more serious
punishment than another. All sin carries the same penalty.
Revelation called it the second death. All of us are going to die
a physical death. People die. We know we are all going to die
someday. There is no escaping that. Even if we are here when
Jesus returns, our physical bodies are going to die. Hebrews 9:27
reads, "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment".
It's the second death which results in eternal separation from God.
It's the second death that is the eternal penalty for sin, for rebellion against
God's will.
There is only one penalty for
all sin and we all face that penalty from the very first accountable sin we
ever committed. So how do we escape the second death? How can we
escape the fate of the rebellious and get back into fellowship with God?
The penalty for our rebellion is spiritual death, God demands it be payed,
so how do we pay that penalty and get back into fellowship with God?
The answer is very simple. We can't. We cannot pay the penalty
of death and live. The only hope we have, is
for someone else to step up and to pay that penalty for us.
Now this is important. Not just anybody can do this. For
instance, I can't step up and pay the penalty of death for anybody else?
Why? Because I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God myself.
I owe the penalty of death for my own rebellion against God. I only
have one life available to pay that penalty with. My life is already
spoken for. I have already forfeited it. My life will not cover
someone else's penalty.
Someone has to step up who is
innocent and offer their life in place of mine. Someone who never
sinned, who does not owe the penalty of death for rebellion and freely offer
their life in place of mine. There's nobody on this earth that ever
lived who is even qualified to do this and if they could, they would only be
able to offer their life for the soul of one person. Someone who's
life was worth more to God than the sum total of all the souls that ever
lived had to come here, live a perfect sinless life and offer them self as a
sacrifice in place of the penalty man owed for His rebellion. Now
that's not all. God has to be willing to accept the sacrifice of this
individual in place of the penalty owed by others.
Now let's look a little
closer at this. Let's break this down into an illustration we can
identify with easily. OK, hypothetically speaking, I live with you in
your home. You provide me with everything I need to eat and all the
shelter I need. Everything I have in your home is by your hand.
Let's say I wrong one of you. I do something against you so egregious
that the only thing that will satisfy you is to have me removed from your
home forever. I have no place to live and you know that if I cannot
live with you, then I will be forced to live separated from all shelter,
hope and security forever. But you cannot forgive me and I will never
be allowed to live under your protection again because I was in rebellion
against you.
I have a big problem. I
have no home to go to. I am thrust out of your home. You don't
like it, but I left you no choice. You don't want to kick me out of
your home. You want me to be able to live in your home with you and
live under your protection and benevolence. Before you can allow me
back into your home, I have to pay the penalty for my rebellion.
Here's the problem. I can't. The penalty is more than I have to
offer. The penalty is my life. I can't pay that penalty and live
with you in your house because I'm dead.
You want to forgive me, but
you can't. So here is what you do. You have a son who lives with
you. You love your son very much. Your son is innocent of any
rebellion against you and is living peacefully with you in your house.
Your son knows you don't want to kick me out of your house forever. So
here is what your son, your only son does. Your son volunteers to pay
that penalty for me so I can come back and live with you in your house.
Your son agrees to die in my place. That alone is pretty staggering
when you think about it. But it doesn't stop there. You agree to
accept the death of your son as payment for penalty I owe you for my
rebellion, so that I can come live with you again in your home.
This is turning into a sacrifice of profound proportion here. But hold
on, there's more.
Your son has agreed to
sacrifice his life to satisfy my death penalty. You have agreed to
accept that sacrifice so that my penalty would be paid. But your son
is going to die by my hands. I am going to be the one who puts your
son to death. You are going to send your innocent son to me and I'm
going to kill him and you are going to allow his murder at my hands to pay
the death penalty I owe you for my rebellion and then you are going to
forgive me and welcome me back into your home with open arms where I will live with you
under your protection and love forever and ever.
That is essentially what happened
with Jesus' sacrifice. God wants us to live with Him forever. So
he agreed to accept the death of His only begotten Son at the hands of those he
wanted to forgive and to allow that sacrifice to pay the death penalty we
owe for our rebellion. How should we feel about that? Guilty?
Maybe a little overwhelmed?
Peter preached in Acts
2:22-23 "Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did
by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain". That was from the first
gospel sermon preached by Peter on Pentecost. Some of the people who
were present and participated in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ were in
that assembly. They were there. How did they feel? Guilty?
Overwhelmed maybe?
Acts 2:36-37 "Therefore
let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard
this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest
of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Indeed...
What shall we do? We killed the Messiah. We killed the promised
one. We killed the Son of God. What shall we do? Where
shall we go? What now? It must have seemed to them at that
moment in time, they were in a hopeless situation. They were convicted
of their sin, they were guilty, and they knew it. They felt guilt over
the death of Jesus and being personally involved, they were more than a
little overwhelmed with it.
How else should we feel about
Jesus sacrifice? How about grateful?
God was under no obligation
to provide man a means of reconciliation. Another one of God's
nature's is that He is absolutely righteous, (Psalms 119:137). God's absolutely righteous
nature means that He always does what's right and He never does that which
is wrong. Would it have been wrong for God to just let mankind suffer
the fate he deserved for rebellion? Would it have been right for God
to simply wash His hands of mankind and leave him separated from His
presence forever, doomed to the fires of Hell?
What about the angels that
sinned? 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 6 make it perfectly clear that there were
angels who inhabited the abode of God and sinned and were cast out. The Hebrews writer
wrote in chapter 2:16, "For verily not to angels doth he give help, but
he giveth help to the seed of Abraham." God chose not to help the
angels that sinned. If it would have been wrong for God not to help
man, then it would have also been wrong for God not to help the angels that
sinned. Paul wrote concerning God's position on this in Romans 9:15,
"For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whom I have compassion."
God chose
to have compassion and mercy on man, but He chose not to show compassion and
mercy to the angels that sinned. God could just as well have left man
to his fate and been perfectly well within His rights. He was under no
obligation whatsoever to provide man a way of reconciliation. The
penalty for rebellion is death. There is absolutely nothing we could
do or give God to buy our reconciliation. There is no way we could
ever pay for it, or work out the debt with good deeds. The wages of
sin is death. We owe God our deaths for our rebellion.
God did what He did for us because He
loves us. He had favor on us even though there was nothing we could
possibly do to merit or deserve it. That is why scripture says we are saved by
grace through faith. Nothing we could ever do could repay God for what
He did for us. Nothing we could ever do could take Jesus off that
cross. Nothing we could ever do could give God back the life of His
only begotten Son, Nothing we could ever do could repay Jesus Christ for His
self sacrifice. No matter how much good we may do in this life, Jesus
still had to die for us. "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift", 2 Corinthians 9:15. Should we feel grateful? You bet
we should. God favored mankind even though mankind did not deserve it.
God's favor, His grace compelled Him to reach down from heaven and offer man
a way to be reconciled to Him. He offered mankind something the sinful
angels didn't get. Mankind got a second chance to live with God
forever.
So, how do we avail ourselves of this
gift? How do we take advantage of God's love and grace and find our
way home? It is very simple. It is disobedience and
rebellion that causes us to be separated from God. God has given
mankind a way to be reconciled to Him and it is through obedience and
submission to this plan that we can be accepted back into God's fellowship.
The Hebrew writer stated it quite plainly when he wrote,
"And being made perfect, he, [meaning Jesus], became the author of
eternal salvation unto all them that obey him", (Hebrews 5:9).
Jesus taught much about the necessity
of obedience to God's will. In Matthew 7:21 and following we read of
Jesus teachings on obedience, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,'
shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in
heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your
name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me,
you who practice lawlessness!"
Jesus went on to teach the parable of the
wise builder in V-24, "Therefore
whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a
wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods
came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it
was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine,
and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the
sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat
on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."
So we see here that it is through
obedience to the will of God that we can have our hopes built on rock, and
be saved from our sin, and be reconciled back to our Father in heaven.
We want our houses, our hopes, built on something solid, like rock. we
want to be sure and walk the path the must be right and that cannot be
wrong.
So what is it exactly that we must obey in order to be saved?
First off, we need to hear the gospel.
This means more than just hearing it. This means listening, heeding,
accepting and acting on it.
John 5:24, Jesus said, "Most
assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent
Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed
from death into life."
Secondly, we must believe the
gospel: John 3:16, "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."
Does this mean we only have
to believe? Of course not.
James wrote that "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well:
the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead?" (James 2:19-20). We are not
saved by a dead faith. There's more.
Thirdly, we need to repent of
our sinful life. In Luke 13:3 Jesus
taught, Luke 13:1, "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish." Repentance is a sorrow of heart that leads one
to a change of behavior. No longer do we live for the ways of the
world. That has to change and we must seek after God and His
righteousness and seek to live as much like Christ as we possibly can using
His perfect life as our example and our goal.
Fourthly, we need to confess
the name of Jesus Christ as the
Son of God. Matthew 10:32-33 "Therefore whoever confesses Me before
men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever
denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in
heaven." Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, "For
with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation"
(Romans 10:10). This is more than just a one time thing. We go
the rest of our lives confessing Jesus as the Son of God, but we make the
initial one before the next step in God's gracious plan for man's salvation.
Next, we have to be forgiven
of our sins. We cannot be saved without having our sins forgiven.
It was our sins, our rebellion which separated us from God in the first
place. So how does the Bible say our sins are forgiven? Remember
earlier in our lesson when we looked at the people on Pentecost when
they realized they had put the Son of God to death and they were cut to
their hearts? Let's go back and read that again starting in V37, "Now
when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the
rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said
to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins". Baptized, for the
remission of sins.
Paul
met Jesus and was blinded on the road to Damascus and when he got there and
got his sight back, Ananias asked him, "And now why are you waiting?
Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the
Lord" (Acts 22:16).
Paul wrote to the Colossians
in 2:12-13, "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the
dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all
trespasses".
OK, so we see that we must be
baptized, buried with Christ and
raised with Him. In what are we baptized? When the Ethiopian
Eunuch became a Christian he said, "See, here is water; what doth hinder
me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:36). He was buried in water.
When Cornelius and his household was converted, Peter said,
"Can anyone forbid water, that these should
not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he
commanded them to be
baptized in the name of the Lord", (Acts 10:47-48)
We become Christians in the same way that he
did. Buried in and risen from water, baptized for the remission of
sins in the name of the Lord. In Matthew 28:18 Jesus commanded the
disciples to "Go therefore* and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". So we see here that baptism
for the remission of sins is commanded and it is also commanded to be done
in the name of the Father and of the Son, (Jesus Christ), and of the Holy
Spirit. Jesus then went on to say, "teaching them to observe all
things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the age". There's that command for obedience again.
Now, not to get into a
lengthy discussion on this, but we need to touch on it. If one is not
baptized for the remission of sin, then they have not obeyed the command to
be baptized for the remission of sin. Acts 19 gives us an example of
about 12 Ephesians who had something wrong with their first immersion and
had to do it again. We learn from a study of these men and their
second immersion that one cannot be taught wrong and baptized right.
One cannot be baptized for the wrong reasons and be absolutely assured they
have met God's conditions for the forgiveness of sins. And we all know
that we cannot be saved if our sins have not been forgiven. If there
is anyone here today who falls in this category, then I urge you to give
this some prayerful and thoughtful consideration. I'll be glad to
study this out with anybody who may be concerned about this. Many of
you will recall that I went through this very thing not too many years ago
and I chose to remove all doubt whatsoever from my life and I have been
nothing but happy with that decision ever since. I sleep much better
at night now.
Now for those who have never
been baptized, if you are accountable to God, if you have sin in your life
and you feel guilt for it and want that sin forgiven then I urge you to
consider Jesus' instructions to
Nicodemus in John 3:5, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born
of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God". Well
what does being born of water have to do with baptism? Paul tells us
exactly what it is,
Romans 6:3-4, "Or do you
not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into
death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."
Newness of life: A new life: that's born again;
to a new life. A new birth, through baptism. Jesus said unless
ye are born of water, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Well if
you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, then you cannot be saved.
Therefore baptism in water is absolutely necessary of one wants to be
reconciled to God; to be saved from their sin. One cannot be saved if
one is not forgiven and our initial forgiveness of sin happens at baptism,
for the remission of sin, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost. Jesus said to Nicodemus,
"Ye must be born again" (John 3:7), therefore we must be baptized.
What about after baptism?
Are we forgiven and on our way to the pearly gates with our ticket punched
and guaranteed a spot in heaven with almighty God?
1 John 1:7-10, "But if we walk in the
light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness". This was written to
people who were already Christians. Our continual cleansing of sin is
dependant upon walking in the light. Walking in the light is the
opposite of walking in darkness and means walking in righteousness, seeking
and doing the will of God, confessing our sins when we fall short and
receiving the continual cleansing of Jesus' blood. But only if, IF, we
walk in the light.
In Revelation 2:10, Jesus
told the Christians in the church in Smyrna, who were starving and
destitute, who were being persecuted horribly to remain faithful unto death
if they wanted to receive the crown of life. The scripture
reads, "Be faithful until death, and I will
give you the crown of life". If the Christians in the first
century had to walk in the light and remain faithful until death, then
Christians today have to as well.
God wants us all to be saved.
He wants us to be saved so badly He sent His only Son down here to die at
the hands of those He loved so that He could pay the debt of sin we owed.
He wants to save us, He wants to forgive us. He gave His best so that
He could. Jesus wants us to be saved. He wanted us to be saved
so badly He willingly came down here and died at
the hands of those He came to save so that we could all have a chance to
live. He gave His all so that when we leave this life, we can go home.
But He won't, He can't unless we submit to Him in obedience to His will.
The angels want us to be saved. Scripture says, "there is joy in
the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents"
(Luke 15:10). Everybody in here wants us
to be saved. I want everybody to be saved. There is no reason
why everybody in here today cannot leave this place in a saved, safe state.
If you are not a Christian, if you have not listened, believed, repented,
confessed, been immersed for the forgiveness of sins and walking in the
light, scripture says you are not safe. God's word says you are not
saved. We are going to sing a song in a few moments. If there is
anything you need, anything you lack, anything you haven't done so that you
can be safe, to not be in rebellion to Him and be reconciled
to Him, to be be saved, then let your need be known. If you don't feel
comfortable walking down that aisle when we sing the invitation song, I urge
you to let one of the men of this congregation know, or you let me know
afterwards and we'll get things right before you leave. Do you need
more study, do you need prayer, whatever your need may be, "behold, now
is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation".
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