perfection.
Our sins that have left us with no hope but to spend an eternity away from the One who is deeply passionate about us. Sins that have condemned us and left us destined to an eternity with no hope of life.
Helplessly and hopelessly we lie on those tracks held hostage by our sins until someone tells us, that while the Creator of the universe demands a ransom, one that we are unable to pay, no matter how good a life we live. The ransom God demands is to satisfy his need for justice because we constantly fall short of God’s perfection. Yet, because of the Creator’s great mercy and passionate love for us, He has paid the ransom! We are told in the Bible (which is His Word) that He paid it because of His desire to showcase His greatness, His unconquerable goodness and generosity and His love towards us. The cost of this ransom was the highest ever paid — the life of His Son. The sacrifice that paid the ransom was perfect and needed no additional sacrifices, so there is no cost to us who have been saved and given new hope.
There grace is defined. God’s love is the reason He has given us hope, where only eternal separation from God once existed. It is a hope of freedom that comes not from merit but from sacrifice, and not our sacrifice, but Christ’s. The hope and freedom is offered to condemned slaves, not because they earned it, but precisely because they could not earn it. We are the condemned slaves who not only have been condemned by the guilt of our failure to meet God’s standard, but are tied to the chains of shame from the wrong choices we make. We are also chained and enslaved to serve nothing but ourselves and Satan.
Here in the stanza of an old hymn, we find the simplicity and power of God’s love for us.
O how He loves you and me,
O how He loves you and me,
He gave His life, what more could He give?
O how He loves you, O how He loves me,
O how He loves you and me.
Jesus to Calv’ry did go,
His love for mankind to show;
What He did there bro’t hope from despair:
O how He loves you, O how He loves me,
O how He loves you and me.
(Written by Kurt Kaiser, 1976.)
The shorthand for grace is ‘mercy, not merit.’ Grace is getting what you don’t deserve and not getting what you do deserve. Karma is all about getting what you deserve. Christianity teaches that getting what you deserve is death with no hope of resurrection. Grace is the opposite of karma. While everyone desperately needs it, grace is not about us. Grace is fundamentally a word about God: his un-coerced initiative and pervasive, extravagant demonstrations of care and favor. It is unearned and unconditional, being freely given to all who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.*
* Justin Holcomb, On The Grace of God. Crossway. First Edition. 2013.
What does it mean to “be saved”? What does the word “salvation” mean?
The word or term salvation is taken from a Greek word which means “deliverance,” “preservation,” and “safety.” To understand what takes place when we are saved, it is necessary, unfortunately, to use some “churchy” terms or words. Contrary to popular opinion the big words of faith really are important. In certain teachings of our faith, scripture or grace it is hard to fully explain truth without such words.
Words like “Justification,” “Sanctification,” and “Glorification” are important in order to understand what happens when someone is saved. Yes, we may not like these multi-syllable, unfamiliar words and sometimes they are used to impress us, especially when simpler words exist, but in this case they really are necessary. So let us look at each of these three big words to see not only what they mean, but what part each plays in our salvation.
They are as follows:
1) Justification (the Past) – Being saved from the penalty of sin. This occurs when we first accept God’s grace, which leads to our being made brand new and without sin. At this point our sins are forgiven, entirely and completely. We are delivered from sin’s penalty. One simple choice leads to a single act of God, that results in His imparting Christ’s righteousness to us.
As a result of Christ’s obedience instead of God holding our failed ability to obey the things the Bible tells us we should do, he no longer does. Then through believing Christ when he said, he paid the price to satisfy God for our failure to obey and that there is nothing left to do we are enabled to have a relationship with the Father.
Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful. 7 No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. 8 But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.
9 But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger.10 Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. (Romans 5:6-10)
They replied, “Have faith in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved! This is also true for everyone who lives in your home.” (Acts 16:31)
2) Sanctification (the Present) – This is the ongoing process where we are being delivered from sin’s power. We have been saved from the penalty of our sins and the power of sin in our lives. However it is the working of the Holy Spirit through the grace of God daily that enables us to make choices that do not give sin power over us. It is a work of God, initiated and sustained by Him and is a life-long process through which we, His people, are transformed from God-hating, sin-loving sinners into God-loving, sin-hating saints.
Don’t let sin keep ruling your lives. You are ruled by God’s kindness and not by the Law. (Romans 6:14)
But I have spoken to you plainly and have tried to remind you of some things. God was so kind to me! (Romans 15:15)
In fact, God thinks of us as a perfume that brings Christ to everyone. For people who are being saved, this perfume has a sweet smell and leads them to a better life. But for people who are lost, it has a bad smell and leads them to a horrible death.
No one really has what it takes to do this work.17A lot of people try to get rich from preaching God’s message. But we are God’s sincere messengers, and by the power of Christ we speak our message with God as our witness. (2 Corinthians 2:15-21)
I pray that God, who gives peace, will make you completely holy. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept healthy and faultless until our Lord Jesus Christ returns. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
Here I am being saved daily, hourly, minute by minute from the effects and consequences of sin. In fact, just an hour ago, God’s Holy Spirit alerted me to a step which would have led to sin. Public confession or confession with my mouth definitely serves to aid in my becoming more Christ-like. This is described in the passage of Romans 10:9-10:
So you will be saved, if you honestly say, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death.10 God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others.
3) Glorification (the Future) — As I am saved from the presence
