Essentials of Christianity

Salvation
Beyond Sunday

Intro:
What is the highest need of man?
Maslow: “Self-actualiztion”
Bible: Salvation

What do other religions teach about how to get salvation?

Islam
Judaism
Hinduism
Buddhism

How does Christianity stand out?

Only one that states salvation is a gift of grace that cannot be earned by works.

The Various Aspects of Salvation:

The Gospel Call

Elements of the Gospel Call:
1. All have sinned (Rom 3: 23)
23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
2. The penalty for sin is death (Rom 6:23)
23
For the wages of sin is death…
3. Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin (Rom 5:8)
8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The Response: Repentance and Faith

Not enough to know and affirm the facts of the call, repentance and trust are also required.
Acts 20: 21
21
I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have
faith in our Lord Jesus.
Hebrews 6:1
1
Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying
again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God

Repentance
Repent = “to turn,or return”
One must turn away from sin and toward God.
Involves a change of mind and attitude about sin
“True repentance is not merely a feeling of remorse…it involves the intellect, the
emotions, and the will.”
-- Paul Little (Know What You Believe)
Repentance is a result of Godly sorrow
2 Corinthians 7:10
10
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret , but
worldly sorrow brings death.

1
 Faith
Faith = “confident trust in, or reliance on”
Faith is “non-negotiable”
Hebrew 11: 6
6
…without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Faith is “the only way”
Ephesians 2:8
8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.
Faith is more than mental assent
Acts 16:31
31
…Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…
John 3:26
16
…whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Our faith means we put our trust only in the work of Christ for our salvation
Romans 4:5
5
However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his
faith is credited as righteousness.

Justification
Baptist Faith & Message:
God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in
Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.

Definition (American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828):

1. The act of justifying; a showing to be just or conformable to law, rectitude or propriety;
4. In theology, remission of sin and absolution from guilt and punishment; or an act of free grace by which God
pardons the sinner and accepts him as righteous, on account of the atonement of Christ.

“Just as if I’d never sinned.”

Delivers us from the penalty of sin

Actually, not just acquittal but also a declaration of “righteousness.”

Romans 5:1
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith , wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
1

Acts 13:38-39
38
"Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of
39

Moses.

Romans 8:1
Therefore, there is now no condemnation
1
for those who are in Christ Jesus

Romans 3: 22-24
22
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe . There is no difference,
23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Romans 5:19
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the
19

obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous .

2
Sanctification
Baptist Faith & Message:
The experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to
progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him.
Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.

Definition:
1. The act of making holy. In an evangelical sense, the act of God's grace by which the affections of men are
purified or alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love to God.

Delivers us from the power of sin

Sanctified = “set apart” (same root as “saint”)

Used 2 ways:
1. Set apart for God’s use or service
1 Corinthians 6:11
…But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord
11

Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Ephesians 2: 10
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God
10

prepared in advance for us to do.

2 Thessalonians 2:13
13
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from
the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and
through belief in the truth.
1 Peter 1: 1-2
1
…To God's elect…2who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and
sprinkling by his blood

2. Set apart to make the personal life of a Christian holy (more “Christ-like”)
We’re not instantly “sin proof” upon conversion
1 John 1: 8
8
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Romans 7
15
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
16
And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no
longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in
me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot
carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do
—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it,
but it is sin living in me that does it.
21
So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in
my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of
my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law
of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me
from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

3
 Sanctification is a process, not an event
Galatians 5:16
16
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
2 Peter 3: 18
18
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Romans 12: 2
2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind…
2 Corinthians 3: 18
18
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed
into his likeness with ever-increasing glory , which comes from the Lord, who is the
Spirit.
Philippians 3: 12-14
12
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I
press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not
consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is
behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize
for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Both God and men have a role in sanctification

2 Peter 1: 3-8, 10-11
3
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our
knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has
given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may
participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil
desires. 5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to
goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control,
perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness;
and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing
measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ…10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your
calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall , 11and you will
receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Just as Justification relies on faith, so too, does sanctification:

Galatians 2: 6-7
6
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him , 7rooted
and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing
with thankfulness.

Glorification
Baptist Faith & Message:
The culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

Definition:
1. Exaltation to honor and dignity; elevation to glory; as the glorification of Christ after his resurrection.

Delivers us from the presence of sin

1 John 3: 2
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that
2

when he appears,we shall be like him…

2 Thessalonians 2:14
14
He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.