by Jacob Ninan
Introduction
Some people turn away from doctrinal discussions, saying that they are all good for theologians, but that ordinary people would prefer things that are more practical. But think about this, and then we can see that this is not correct. Obviously, there are some finer aspects of doctrinal discussions that are of interest only to the academic world. But it is also true that many times a correct understanding of doctrines can be what makes the difference, when it comes to making many practical decisions.This is very much true when it comes to doctrines about our salvation. Since salvation is a matter of life or death for us, it is extremely crucial for us to understand how to receive salvation, and also how to grow in it. This idea that we need to grow in respect to salvation is itself something which many people have not understood (1Pet.2:2). They think they are already saved, and there is nothing more to be done. Just think of what loss such people will have in their lives just because they did not know this small part of doctrine!
We have to obtain a clear understanding from studying the word, the Bible. Here we face a huge challenge. Satan knows how critical this knowledge is for us, and therefore he keeps trying to confuse and mislead us about this. So what we see among the churches are huge variations in the doctrines of salvation, with everyone claiming that their interpretation is the right one. Some people think that when they were 'baptised' as infants, they have already come into the kingdom of God. For some, it is the fact that they are Christians by birth, some count on membership in the church, their participation in the holy communion or certain rituals, etc. A group of people believe that since Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, ultimately everyone will be saved! Some believe that God has already predetermined who will be saved and there is nothing they need to do from their side. Etc. You can already see how a correct understanding of doctrine is absolutely necessary.
Jesus says that if we want to understand the right doctrine, we must have a willingness in our heart to obey it once we understand it (Jn.7:17). In other words, God will not 'throw His pearls to pigs', and will reveal His truths only to those who will truly profit from them. Another thing to do is to examine the 'fruit' that a teaching produces (in the same way that we need to discern if someone is a false prophet or teacher) (Matt.7:15,16) . We must look at where a teaching will ultimately lead us to. We must look at how it has blessed the one who is teaching it. All these considerations will help us to find out if it is true.
I shall be building up this teaching on salvation, step by step. May I request you to listen till the end, so that you will be able to see the big picture and also the connection among the different parts? Since this is a recorded video, you can pause whenever you like, check with the scriptures, and then come back to it so that you can get the maximum blessing out of this.
Salvation from what?
Sad to say, there is so much lack of clarity in this area that what the preachers offer and what the hearers want are many times far away from what God has in mind. Some preachers promise that if someone comes to Jesus, Jesus will remove all their problems and give them a life to enjoy. Others promise healing, prosperity, promotions, houses, cars, etc. Some attract young people with music, fun and games, hoping that along the way they may come to hear the Gospel also! They don't realise that this was the kind of people whom Jesus sent back when they started following Him in large numbers. He told them that instead they should aim at things that were meaningful in eternity (Jn.6:26,27). Many people do not understand why Jesus came to this world in the first place, and they are only thinking of Him as Someone who will be there to help them to get whatever they want, like a genie who would appear when one rubbed the magic lamp!An angel appeared to Joseph who was engaged to marry Mary, and told him what the mission of Jesus was. "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matt.1:21). The name 'Jesus' itself means, 'Jehovah saves!' The witness of John the baptiser about Jesus was, "The next day he *saw Jesus coming to him and *said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (Jn.1:29). The apostle Paul understood the reason why Jesus came into the world, "It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1Tim.1:15). What Jesus said about Himself was, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord" (Lk.4:18,19).
The root of all the problems we have in this world is 'sin'. All these problems came into this world immediately after our ancestor Eve disobeyed God. Since then, problems have only been multiplying. Since God knew even as He thought of creating man that man might sin, and that it would bring a huge chasm between God and man, He had already planned for offering man salvation through the death of His Son Jesus (1Pet.1:20). God also informed Adam and Eve about this future day when salvation would come (Gen.3:14,15).
God's plan for dealing with all the problems in this world is to deal with the root of it all, which is sin. We have seen that that was why Jesus came. His goal was to proclaim the kingdom of God and then to die on the cross and pay the ransom to redeem people who were caught in the bondage of sin. Many people do not understand this even now, and they look for freedom from the immediate problems they are facing. When Jesus was on this earth, and He did many things out of compassion for the people who were in need, that was not His main focus. When He did miracles, multitudes began to follow Him, but He did not allow Himself to be occupied with them even though they were needy, because His goal was to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God. So He kept moving from place to place. It is very important for us to understand that sometimes Jesus left people who were waiting for Him to heal them, because He knew that He should not allow this felt need to divert His focus from His main mission (Lk.4:42,43). Very few people now are able to see that the Gospel of freedom from sin is what is on God's heart. Many people can see the different needs which people are suffering from, and some of them are also willing to do whatever they can to mitigate those problems. But Jesus would say, I am using my words here, "You must focus on the highest priority of God, without neglecting the others." Compare this with Matt.23:23. Ask for God to give you this revelation.
So, God's desire for us is to save us from our sins. We are guilty of our sins, and we deserve punishment. This punishment, for each of our sins, is an eternal separation from God, which God calls spiritual 'death'. The first step is to give us forgiveness. When Jesus died, it was the innocent One suffering punishment in the place of sinners, us. So, the first part of salvation is to give us forgiveness, so that our sin can no longer separate us from God. We are also saved from punishment, which is an eternal torment in hell, and we are offered a place in heaven with Jesus for all eternity. But even this will not deal entirely with the problem of sin. God does not want to merely forgive our sins and watch us continue to sin (1Jn.2:1). Therefore He empowers us in our heart by sending the Holy Spirit to live there, and helps us to overcome whenever we are tempted to sin. If we fall, He has made forgiveness available for us, which we can receive if we confess our sin (1Jn.1:9). God's goal is that sin must not be able to rule over us freely as it did before (Rom.6:14). In order to experience this in our practical life, we must learn to deny ourselves when it comes to doing God's will (vv.12,13). Let us now look more clearly at how God works this out.
How God offers salvation
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1Jn.1:9). For God who is not only loving and merciful, but also righteous and just, if He just forgave our sins, it would have been unjust, because we deserved punishment. The way of salvation which God brought forth took care of the requirements both of justice and mercy. He took the punishment on Himself in our place, and offered us forgiveness as a free gift. Many people nowadays do not realise what they really deserve for their sins, because they hear only about the love and grace of God. As a result, their response to God when they hear that kind of Gospel tends to be inappropriate to the actual situation. They do not realise how they were going to be condemned eternally to the torment of hell for their sins. They do not realise that it was the death that Jesus took in their place that enabled Him to offer them salvation as a gift.Preachers in the old days used to tell people what they deserved from the holy God for their sins, describing the punishment waiting for all those who would not repent from their sins. And then they would portray the love and mercy of God who suffered in their place, and who is now offering this great salvation from sin from the penalty of sin as well as the power of sin in their lives. A large number of preachers only emphasise on the love and grace of God and invite people to receive this free gift. You can see there is a huge difference between the two approaches as to how people respond to the Gospel.
There are also two common mistakes in the way preachers describe this offer from God. Some believe that this offer is effectively only for certain number of people whom God has elected before even creating the world. The other mistake is to assume that the Gospel is freely applicable to everybody and that ultimately everyone will be saved. Now we must be clear about certain aspects of the character of God. There is no partiality with God. He will not elect certain people and relegate everyone else to hell as an exercise of His sovereign will. In His heart, He wants all people to be saved (1Tim.2:4;2Pet.3:9). But at the same time, He will not force anyone to be saved because He has created us in His image, with a free will of our own. Only those who want to be saved will be saved.
So, even though Jesus has died for the sins of the whole world (1Jn.2:2), everyone is not going to be saved automatically. People have to choose to go to God through Jesus in order to be saved. Jesus knew that this number was going to be small (Matt.7:13,14). Only those who hear the Gospel of God who is holy and righteous, recognise themselves as deserving eternal punishment, and see the hope which God is offering them through the death of Jesus, will honestly and humbly turn to Jesus for salvation. See here Jesus saying that the choice is ours and that it is up to us to make sure that we enter into salvation. The tragedy is that many have listened to the love and grace version of salvation and have come to believe that they are saved. But actually they are on the broad way that leads to destruction, as Jesus said here.
Three phases of salvation
Salvation from sin, which Jesus offers us, comes to us in three separate phases. Sadly, many people who have heard the Gospel and know about salvation, see salvation as something that happens in a moment and lasts eternally. Some of them have experienced that first part, and do not realise that there are two more parts they still have to experience. But remember, God's desire is not only to forgive us our sins, but also to set us free from the way of falling into sin again and again. He is also offering us that we can become like Jesus, not all at once, but progressively as we partake of His nature (2Pet.1:3,4).Justification
Justification is a somewhat legal term that means to be acceptable to God. God is absolutely holy, without blemish, and perfectly righteous and just in all that He does. It must be obvious to us that no matter what we do, we cannot be acceptable to God in terms of becoming equally holy, just and righteous like Him. Recognising this, God offers us a way that will be within our reach. He declares that if we put our faith in Him, He will count that as being the same as if we are righteous (Rom.4:5). If we see the big picture, on one side our imperfection and on the other side God's perfection, what must be a bridge between us must be something that is possible for us. When we look at it this way, we can see that our faith must have two sides to it. On one side we place no confidence in our holiness or any ability to become holy as He is. On the other side, we place complete trust in His ability to accept us, based on the fact that our sins have been paid for by the death of Jesus. So, when we place our trust in Jesus as our Saviour in this way, God accepts us as righteous before Him. An example for us is Abraham, who was too old to be able to have children, who trusted in the promise of God for descendants, knowing that God was able to do what He promised (Gen.15:2,5,6). Another way to say this is that our sins were placed on Jesus when He hung on the cross, and when we believed in Him, His righteousness was credited to us.When we go to God like this, He washes away the record of our sins with the blood of Jesus which was the price for our sins (1Pet.1:18,19). Now that the chasm between us and God is taken away, God is able to accept us as His children. He regenerates our spirit, which used to be dead, disconnected with God, and against God, and so we are born again and become connected with God (Ezek.36:26,27). The Holy Spirit who causes us this regeneration now dwells inside us, and becomes our Helper, Teacher, Comforter, Guide, etc. One clear mark of a man who has been born again is that there is a change in his mind's direction. He now wants to be pleasing to God, and no longer desires to sin.
One thing we must understand here is that while justification restores us back to God, our sins are washed away, and we get a new heart and mind, we do not become perfect. That is why this is only the beginning of our salvation and not the full part. We still have with us the remains of our old nature, in which there are sinful, selfish lusts and desires. We are to keep it crucified, so that these lusts will not be able to bear any fruit (Gal.5:24). That leads to the second phase of salvation.
Sanctification
If the righteousness of Christ is credited to us through justification, that righteousness is to become practical in our life through this process known as sanctification. Of course, we cannot accomplish this by our own strength or efforts. But the truth is that unless we cooperate with the Holy Spirit consciously and deliberately to follow His leading, we may continue to remain carnal (or fleshly) or merely natural as people without becoming spiritual, even though we have been born again. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Php.2:12,13). We see here the two sides of the process. The Holy Spirit is working in us to show us the way and to empower us. And then it becomes our turn to actually do what He tells us and carry out His will in our practical life. In order to do this, we will have to deny ourselves many times concerning what our flesh wishes to do, and then do God's will (Lk.9:23). When we go along this way, little by little our life gets transformed into the likeness of Jesus.One common mistake is for people to focus on what the Holy Spirit is doing from His side and to assume that He will complete His work. If if was only up to the Holy Spirit, everyone who is born again would have become like Jesus immediately! But if we are not cooperating with Him, He will not be able to do in us what He would have liked to do. Another variation of this mistake is to assume that as we read the Bible and become more and more captivated by the nature of Christ we see there, we will be silently changed to become like Him. Some Christians believe that when we are baptised in the Holy Spirit, He accomplishes an entire sanctification in us, purifying us from the influence of sin. We can easily see that sanctification does not happen instantaneously but only as a progressive process which also depends on our cooperation.
Glorification
The final stage of our salvation is going to be in eternity, when our sin nature itself will be taken away from us, and we will be given a new body without sin.Entering salvation
As a matter of fact, people come to Jesus with different levels of knowledge, and also the way they approach Jesus is also not the same. If a man comes to Jesus for healing, and he gets healed, he begins to have a certain level of attachment to Jesus. He may give up his old religion, start attending a church, and even get baptised. He may consider himself to be a follower of Christ, but we need to see that all this does not still constitute entering into salvation. He has not dealt with his sin still. It can be hoped that this kind of experience will expose him to the truth about salvation, and that then he would respond to it in the right way. Here we mentioned healing, but it can be many different types of experience with Jesus for people, but they can all still come short of salvation.Another common thing that happens is that someone is born into a Christian family, gets to know Bible stories and believe them, and as he grows older, he becomes part of his church and considers himself to be a Christian. But until he personally repents of his sins before God, and submits to Jesus as His Saviour and Lord, He will be merely in the church and not in the kingdom of God!
Salvation, according to the Bible, is from sin to God. As long as sin is not addressed and dealt with in the right way, there cannot be any salvation, however miraculous experiences people may have had with Jesus. One can observe large numbers of people who consider themselves to have become Christians, even in churches, in whose lives there are no signs of a transformation taking place through the work of the Holy Spirit. Evangelists who have watered down their message, prophets who have not spoken up about it, pastors who want to be inclusive in their acceptance of people who come into the church, etc., are all responsible for this state of affairs.
Salvation, as we said before, does not always begin with full knowledge about doctrine. But certain elements need to be present in a man's heart and mind that are necessary for him to respond to God in the right way. Let us look at experience of the thief on the cross who entered paradise with Jesus on the same day (Lk.23:39-43). Obviously he did not use certain words in the way we would like people to speak because we have more knowledge now. But what he said highlighted the presence of certain specific attitudes people must have even today. He was very much aware of himself as being a sinner before Jesus, and acknowledged that his punishment was what he deserved. He recognised Jesus as his King and Saviour and committed his life into His hands. Of course, he did not get any chance to work this out before he died, but it was this attitude that opened him up to salvation.
Salvation is not by works, but by God's grace, and we receive it by faith (Eph.2:8,9). In this context it refers to the unmerited nature of salvation. To have this recognition, we must see God as holy and lifted up far above us in every way, and we must also see ourselves as being wretched and sinful before Him, as in the example of Isaiah (Isa.6:1-5). It is when insight comes into our heart about this condition that we 'repent'. Repentance simply means a change of our mind, wanting to give up following our old sinful ways and now seeking to follow Jesus in order to submit to Him and hopefully becoming like Him. This repentance is not a work we do in order to qualify for salvation, but our response when we see our situation and understand the salvation that is being offered to us. If this turning around does not occur in our mind, salvation has not begun! When we truly see our condition, we will also turn to Jesus as our Saviour, recognising that we cannot save ourselves but we need Him. This is how we place our faith and trust in Him. When we come to Jesus, we also know that He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Another part of our response when we come to Jesus as our Saviour is when we recognise who He is, and submit our lives to Him, to do whatever He tells us. If this commitment does not happen, it simply shows that we have not understood who we are dealing with.
It is possible that some of you did not know all these things when you first came to Jesus. But this is how we keep learning. As we read and meditate on God's word, and learn to apply it to our life, our path becomes brighter and clearer. We may also realise that we had not understood certain things properly or we had been doing certain things wrong. But every time we get new 'light' or understanding, we can correct our ways and go on to becoming more obedient and submissive to God.
Working out our salvation
What we have seen above is the beginning of salvation. Just as life begins as a minute embryo, and then goes on to grow into the stature of mature man and woman, the spiritual baby who has been born in us has to grow with the process called sanctification. Our repentance began as an attitude of turning away from sin and following Jesus. Now we have the opportunity to practice them. We get to deny ourselves whenever our desires go against God's ways, and then we can choose to carry out His will. The light or understanding in us also grows, and we begin to see both our sinful ways and God's ways more clearly than before. We can also call this process discipleship where our goal is to learn from our Lord and become more like Him. Growing in spiritual maturity is thus a lifelong process in which we become transformed by becoming increasingly free from our sinful ways, and it becoming increasingly 'natural' for us to do the will of God even at great cost to our natural desires. "But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, That shines brighter and brighter until the full day" (Prov.4:18). If we are walking faithfully before God, and seeking to do all that He has taught us, we will get to see many things we have been doing wrong till then (Matt.13:12). Then we have the opportunity to repent and start living according to the new understanding we have received. In this sense, repentance is a constant habit for a faithful Christian. Remember, we are seeking to become like Jesus in all our ways. We must not be satisfied with mere external purity, but we must work out our salvation in our thoughts, attitudes and motives from where our external behaviour follows. We will not become perfect as long as we are living here on the earth. But we must make sure that we are always headed in the direction towards perfection."Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless" (Exod.17:1). If we want to become 'perfect' it is important that we learn to walk before the face of God. As long as we are focusing on what people think about us, we can never be free to do what is best, the will of God (Prov.29:25). There are higher levels of fellowship and intimacy God has for us, but if we opt for popularity, honour, etc., or live under the fear of offending people, we cannot become closer to God. This is a very important point for us to consider and then to make the choice for God.
It is a sad thing to see that many Christians are under the impression that once they are 'saved', by which they are referring to justification, everything is fine. Many do not pay much attention to becoming more and more sanctified in their daily life. Many churches also do not pay sufficient attention to encouraging and helping the members to grow in sanctification. As a result, many people remain carnal, natural and do not go on to become spiritual.
Enjoying freedom from sin
"For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Rom.6:14). This is God's statement about what He has prepared for us. It is not saying that because we have come under grace, we will automatically enjoy freedom from sinning. In order to come to experience that, we need to take up our cross daily, deny ourselves and follow Jesus obeying Him in all that He tells us (vv.12,13). But we also need to understand what 'victory' means in practical terms.We are tempted to sin because we have sinful desires in our flesh (Jas.1:14,15). We sin when we yield to any of them, knowingly or unknowingly. Many Christians seem to think that victory means that they will no longer feel the temptation coming up, because what they expect God to do is to take away those desires. Actually, victory means to overcome when we are tempted. If we keep resisting a temptation again and again, we will find that the force of that temptation is coming down, and it is becoming easier to overcome it. But we must not forget that if we 'relax' our vigil at any time, the temptation may come again. So, victory is not something we can take for granted. That is why Jesus told us to keep on being on the alert and praying (Matt.26:41). Our adversary, the Devil, is waiting to catch us in a careless moment (1Pet.5:8). Let us really be watchful because Satan will not be considerate towards us, but he will wait for our moment of weakness and attack us. But if we do happen to fall, there is forgiveness for us from our merciful Father when we humble ourselves and confess it to Him (1Jn.1:9).
Conclusion
Salvation is a most precious gift God is offering us. It is one mistake to neglect it and run after our pleasures, fame or power. It is another mistake, after having tasted salvation, to take it for granted and never come to enjoy all that God has prepared for us. May God help us.