What Is Salvation? I. Introduction A. People generally recognize that Christianity has something to do with salvation B. In America it is hard to miss those “Jesus Saves” banners and advertisements! C. But do people in general, and Americans in particular, have any frame of reference in which they might understand what it means for Jesus to “save”? 1. Most people associate “saving” with money and shopping; does Jesus go to Walmart to save? 2. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering. Finally fed up, God said, That’s it; I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job.' So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away. They e-mailed; they e-mailed with attachments; they downloaded; they did spreadsheets; they wrote reports; they created labels and cards; they created charts and graphs; they did some genealogy reports; they did every job known to man. Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than Hades. Ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky; thunder rolled; rain poured; and, of course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming, “It's gone! It's all gone! I lost everything when the power went out!” Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate. “Wait!” he screamed. “That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all His work and I don't have any of mine?!” God just shrugged and said, “Jesus saves.” 3. We might laugh, or groan, but these are the types of things people today tend to associate with saving, so why not salvation? D. We do well, therefore, to explore what salvation is 1. What does “salvation” mean? 2. Why do people need to be saved? 3. How does Jesus save? II. What Is Salvation? A. According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, salvation means “preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss.” B. Such is consistent with source terms in Hebrew and Greek 1. Hebrew yasha’, to save, be saved, be delivered (Brown-Driver-Briggs) a. e.g. Exodus 14:13 b. The form there is y’shua, which becomes the name Yehoshua, Joshua or Jesus, indicating that YHWH saves (cf. Matthew 1:21) 2. Greek sozo, to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction (Thayer’s; e.g. Matthew 1:21) C. People today are quite familiar of the idea of “saving” as “preservation from loss,” as in saving money, or saving information D. While that sense exists in Christianity we do better to emphasize the idea of salvation as deliverance or rescue: saving life, rescuing and delivering people E. In the covenant between God and Israel, God’s salvation for the people, their deliverance or rescue, was understood in very physical and concrete terms 1. Thus Exodus 14:13: YHWH quite literally delivered His people, for the waters receded, they walked as if on dry land, and the sea covered their enemies (Exodus 14:14-31) 2. 1 Samuel 14:45: Saul magnifies YHWH’s salvation of His people when they defeated the oppressive Philistines, spurred on by Jonathan’s bravery (cf. 1 Chronicles 16:35) 3. Psalm 14:7: the salvation of YHWH is manifest when He brings back His people from exile 4. Many have a tendency to “spiritualize” the old covenant in new covenant terms, but we must resist, for Israel was “saved” by YHWH when He defeated their enemies and He brought them out of Egypt and then out of Babylonian exile 5. Such also goes a long way to explain why the Israelites were again looking for very concrete deliverance and rescue in the days of Jesus, and why their hopes were disappointed! F. The Scriptures speak clearly and consistently regarding Jesus of Nazareth: He came to save the people from the forces of evil, sin, and death 1. Matthew 1:21: Jesus as Savior inherent in His name: YHWH saves, for Jesus would save the people from their sin 2. Romans 8:24: Christians are saved in the hope that in Christ they would receive the adoption as sons, the resurrection of the body (Romans 8:18-23) 3. Colossians 2:15: Christ has overcome the powers and principalities; this is dramatized in Revelation 19:1-21 G. Thus we see in Scripture that God works to rescue and deliver His people, and in Christ rescues them from sin, death, and the forces of evil III. The Need For Salvation A. At this point many, especially Americans, might bristle: what do you mean I need to be saved/rescued/delivered? 1. By virtue of necessity salvation, rescue, or deliverance requires the assistance of another; many in America strive for self-sufficiency in all things 2. Salvation also demands a bit of humility and recognition of weakness: to need to be rescued means that we cannot, by our own strength, extricate ourselves out of a situation; many in America can only see themselves as the strong, never as the weak B. Thus we must first explore self-understanding before comparing it to what God has made known in Christ and in Scripture 1. Americans tend to see themselves as generally good people with a few flaws 2. If asked how they know they are good, they might point to certain altruistic behaviors, some decent ideas, and a host of things they do not do 3. They often have the belief that their good deeds outweigh the bad they have done, and believe that sufficient to guarantee entrance into heaven 4. Such views are entirely consistent with the effects of Enlightenment rationalism and the elevation of the standing of man a. It can be said that for the first 1800 years of the Gospel people needed no convincing of their condemned standing; they needed convincing that salvation was possible b. Yet ever since the Enlightenment people are quite confident that they can be saved; they instead need convincing of the fact they stand condemned and would need saving! C. We begin with Jesus’ name and thus mission: YHWH saves in Jesus, because Jesus came to save people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) D. We must understand the nature of sin so as to understand the need we have to be saved from it 1. “Sin” has different dimensions which we do well to explore a. Sin as transgression: the action of crossing the line, thinking, feeling, or doing something which is contrary to what God has made known (1 John 3:4) b. Sin as rebellion: a spirit of disobedience in which we are not “innocently” making a mistake or two, but deliberately going against what God has said is right and good (Romans 3:9-18) c. Sin as hamartia, “missing the mark”: literal definition of the Greek word, suggesting not merely thoughts/feelings/acts of commission, but also in not doing well all the time (cf. Romans 3:23, James 4:17) 2. God in Christ testifies to the consequences of sin a. Those who sin become slaves to sin: John 8:34, Romans 6:16 b. Sin is the reason for pain, misery, suffering, and death: Romans 5:12-21, 8:18-24 c. Sin corrupts and leads to greater depravity: Romans 1:18-32 d. Sin is the reason for physical death and spiritual separation from God leading to condemnation and hell: Romans 6:23, 8:18-24, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 3. In Romans 3:20, 23 Paul leaves no doubt: all have sinned; all have fallen short of the glory of God! 4. Thus, everyone is liable to condemnation; all conscious adults have participated in sin and stand to reap its consequences E. Even if they think they are generally good people tend to recognize they have some problems and flaws, and they think they can solve their sin problems on their own 1. Humans like to be problem solvers: we learn of a problem, we want to fix it 2. If we are told we cannot fix a problem, we work real hard to prove that wrong! F. And yet it is made known by God in Scripture that our sin problem is one we cannot fix on our own! 1. People like to imagine that God will judge them by weighing the good against the bad: that was the way the Egyptians thought of the afterlife, but you will search the Scriptures in vain for such an idea! 2. Instead, James sets forth the truth of the matter in James 2:10-12: whoever keeps the law of God in all but one point is still guilty of the whole! 3. We can understand the premise with a courtroom scene a. Imagine a person is on trial for stealing b. What if the defense lawyer were to say to the jury, “yes, my defendant stole. But he has been otherwise a great person, helped many in need, did not commit murder or adultery, etc.”? c. In this case the jury would rightly condemn the defendant as guilty, because he is guilty of transgressing the law in one point; the rest of what he did or did not do is irrelevant 4. It is for this reason Paul says in Romans 3:20 that no one will be justified before God by faithfulness to the law: we have all transgressed the law, and so the law condemns us as transgressors! 5. If we die in our sins, God is just to condemn us; we have begun to pay the penalty for what we have done, and we are consigned to further judgment 6. Thus we cannot imagine that good deeds can outweigh bad deeds; once we have sinned, we are transgressors, and will be judged accordingly G. In this way everyone, Jews and Greeks, men and women, even Americans, find themselves in need of rescue/deliverance, because they have sinned and cannot overcome sin through their own unaided efforts! IV. Salvation in Christ A. We therefore see why it would be that Jesus would need to come to save people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) B. The New Testament is quite clear about how Jesus accomplished deliverance and rescue for people: He died on the cross and was raised on the third day (Romans 4:25, 5:6-11) C. But how did Jesus’ death and resurrection lead to rescue and deliverance from sin? D. The New Testament provides two prominent motifs and three metaphors in those motifs to explain how Jesus rescued/delivered people from sin and death 1. One motif is transactional a. Jesus as the sacrifice providing propitiation for sin (John 1:29, 1 John 4:10) b. Jesus as a ransom, payment as redemption (Matthew 20:28, Titus 2:14) 2. The other motif is militaristic: Jesus as defeating the forces of sin and death on the cross and in the resurrection (Colossians 2:15, Revelation 5:5) E. Jesus the Sacrifice 1. How can it be that through suffering a violent death Jesus was able to provide forgiveness for others? 2. We must understand many premises from the covenant between God and Israel to make sense of it 3. God made Himself known to Israel as a God of love and justice (Psalm 33:5) a. As a God of justice, wrongs needed to be punished, and right commended b. But as a God of love, a means needed to be provided to atone, or cover, for the wrongs done by a contrite Israelite 4. In the covenant between God and Israel an atonement mechanism was developed: vicarious atonement through animal sacrifice a. Leviticus 1:1-6:30, among other places b. The way this atonement mechanism worked is explained in Leviticus 17:11: life is in the blood; blood is to be offered on the altar to make atonement, and given for that purpose c. When an Israelite by faith offered an animal sacrifice to YHWH for his or her sin, the innocent life of the animal was given to atone for the guilty life of the Israelite, and that innocent life suffered the penalty; justice was satisfied, because a life was given for sin, and the benefit was vicariously absorbed by the Israelite 5. And yet, Hebrews 10:4: the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin 6. It had been prophesied in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 that One would arise in Israel who would suffer for His people in order to secure their atonement; and so Jesus lived without sin and died as the ultimate sacrifice for sin (1 Peter 2:18-25) a. Jesus gave His innocent life for the guilty lives of all people; justice was satisfied, because life was given for sin b. In this way Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient to cover any and every sin from the beginning, and people by faith could vicariously absorb life in Jesus (Hebrews 7:12-9:28) 7. Thus Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21) F. Jesus the Ransom for Many 1. Another way to understand Jesus’ sacrifice is in terms of money and debt 2. Matthew 18:21-35: in a parable Jesus associated the forgiveness of sin with the forgiveness of debt 3. He spoke of giving His life as a ransom for sin (Matthew 20:28): He would pay the price, absorb the loss, experience the suffering, in order to pay the debt sinful humanity owed 4. The redemption metaphor is indebted to the sacrifice imagery to understand how such a transaction could take place and be reckoned as effective 5. But the redemption metaphor does well to remind us that the actual obtaining of forgiveness is a matter of accounting: when a person puts their faith in Jesus and acts accordingly, God no longer reckons that person’s sin against them, considering that debt as paid in full by the blood of the Lord Jesus (cf. Romans 4:6-7) G. Christus Victor 1. In Revelation 12:1-12 we are given a vision of Satan attempting to defeat a woman with Child; the Child is given all authority, and Satan is cast out of heaven, defeated 2. Such is consistent with a theme throughout the New Testament: in suffering evil thoroughly without responding in kind, Jesus overcame evil and the spiritual forces of darkness behind that evil (Ephesians 6:12, Colossians 2:15) 3. In this way we understand Jesus as the Passover lamb: in His suffering and death Jesus provides liberation of people from the bondage of sin and death and the forces empowered by darkness (Exodus 12:1-51, Luke 1:68-74, Romans 6:14-23, 1 Corinthians 5:7) 4. Such is called Christus Victor, Christ the Victor, for Jesus gained victory over sin and death, and if we suffer as He did, we will obtain the victory in Him (Romans 8:17-24) H. Thus Jesus, through His death and resurrection, served as a sacrifice for our sin, allowing our debt to be paid, and overcame the forces of sin and death V. Be Saved From This Crooked Generation! A. Thus we have seen what salvation is, why we need to be saved, and how Jesus has provided salvation B. Yet God does not force salvation on anyone; love does not insist on its own way; the invitation is offered, and all who would be saved must accept it (1 Corinthians 13:4, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20) C. How, then, can a person be rescued/delivered in Jesus? D. One must hear the Gospel of Christ (Romans 10:13-17) 1. A person must know what it is they are to accept 2. And so the message of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension/lordship, and eventual return must be told to them E. One must believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and confess as much (Romans 10:9-10, Hebrews 10:1, 6) 1. Once a person has heard the Gospel message, they must accept it as truth 2. To accept the message as truth demands the recognition that YHWH, the Creator God of Israel, worked powerfully in Jesus, raised Him from the dead, and gave Him all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18) 3. And so we must believe, demanding trust, in Jesus as Lord and King (Acts 2:36) 4. We cannot keep that belief to ourselves; we must declare it before others as well by confessing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Romans 10:9-10, 1 Timothy 6:12-13) F. One must repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand (Acts 2:38) 1. Repent, in English, involves being sorry or sorrowful; we are to be sorrowful for our sins (Romans 6:21) 2. But repentance in Greek is metanoeo, a complete change of mind for the better; thus, we are to fully change our hearts and minds so as to follow Jesus and no longer the ways we followed beforehand (Romans 12:2) 3. Through repentance we commit to following the ways of Jesus; repentance looks forward G. One must be baptized into Christ (Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3-7, Galatians 3:27, 1 Peter 3:21) 1. Baptism is immersion in water (cf. Romans 6:3-7) 2. Baptism is the means by which we come into spiritual contact with the blood of Christ; baptism is an appeal in faith to God to have the cleansing of Christ reckoned on our behalf (Matthew 26:28/Acts 2:38, 1 Peter 3:21) 3. Baptism is the covenant sign of the new covenant between God and man in Christ and the normative response of faith in the first century to the Gospel message (Acts 2:41, 8:12-13, 16, 38, 9:18, 10:47-48, 16:33, Colossians 2:11-12) 4. In baptism we “put on” Christ (Galatians 3:27) H. One must follow Jesus as His disciple, enduring to the end (Matthew 10:22, 28:18-20, 1 John 2:3-6) 1. We may receive “initial salvation” by hearing, believing, confessing, repenting, and being baptized, but such is only the beginning, not the end 2. God’s goal in Christ is relational: God’s purposes is not to have someone believe they have fixed their sin problem and can go back to life as normal, because such a one has not fully understand the implications of the Gospel message! 3. God does not want us to remain wallowing in sin but to become more like His Son, living righteously and not according to the desires of the flesh (Romans 8:29, Galatians 5:17-24) 4. We cannot imagine that we can obtain victory over sin and death in Jesus and then return to the practices which led us to be defeated and die and that all will be well with us! 5. Thus it is the one who endures to the end who will be saved (Matthew 10:22) 6. We must live our lives for the Lord Jesus who gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20)! I. In this way you are reconciled to God in Christ, becoming one with God, and will share eternity in Him (John 17:20-23, Romans 5:6-11)! J. If you have not yet obtained salvation in Christ, you can be rescued and delivered from sin and death today in Him K. If you are in Christ but need to repent of sin or be strengthened by your fellow Christians you can receive that as well so as to be saved! L. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: “And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name JESUS; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Most people understand salvation as being a major theme of Christianity. Jesus’ name means “YHWH saves.” Salvation is about preserving something from harm. When we see “salvation,” we should think of deliverance or rescue. May we praise God in Christ for rescue from sin and death, and strive to obtain eternal life in Jesus! 2: For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Everyone finds themselves in need of salvation because all have sinned. To sin is to think, feel, or act against what God has made known. Conscious adults have all done bad things; we thus all have sinned. Sin does not get better; sin leads to death; we are condemned in our sins. We cannot fix our sin problem ourselves: once we have sinned, we are transgressors, and cannot make that right ourselves. Thanks be to God for the opportunity to find salvation in Jesus! 3: On the morrow [John the Baptist] seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, “Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) Jesus provided the means of forgiveness by dying on the cross for our sins. Jesus was a sacrifice, giving up His perfect life to atone or cover for the guilty lives of others. Jesus’ life was a ransom, paying the debt of sin accrued by mankind. By dying on the cross Jesus overcame the forces of sin. He overcame death in the resurrection on the third day. In these ways we understand how God was able to provide deliverance from sin and death through Jesus. Praise God for salvation in Christ, and may we all obtain the resurrection of life! 4: And with many other words [Peter] testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation” (Acts 2:40). God provided the means of salvation in Christ but did not force it on anyone. We must accept what God has done for us in Jesus! We must put our trust in Jesus as Lord and Christ; we must declare that faith before others. We must change our hearts and minds to follow Jesus in repentance. We must submit to immersion in water in Jesus’ name for the forgiveness of our sins. We must follow Jesus as His disciples and endure to the end. God has done all that is necessary to reconcile us back to Him through Jesus; may we make good on the offer of reconciliation, come to faith in Jesus, and follow Him!