What is Salvation?
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God,
and are justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that came by Christ Jesus Romans
3:21
But God demonstrates his own love for us
in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
To understand what salvation means, you have to understand where we are now
as the human race.
Genesis tells us that God created a world where humans would find a home
that was perfectly crafted for a perfect life.
This planet apart from the damage that has been done to it, is a perfect
home for us. It has everything we need. And life worked. We were in perfect
harmony with the animals, with the world, with God and with ourselves.
Genesis also tells us that humanity, being who we are, just could not follow
God's directions and decided to take matters into our own hands and headed
off to find our own brave new world within the world given to us.
Sadly to say, the experiment has not worked out well.
Depending on who you read and believe, even agnostic scientists seem to agree
that we are headed for disaster.
You have all seen the cartoon of the bearded zealot standing on the street
corner with the sign, "repent...the end is near!"
Seems like he is correct after all.
Paul in Romans writes that through the first Adam, sin came into the world;
and with sin, death.
We see the effects of moral alienation from God all around us and we see
its effects on the planet.
On the way back from Montreal, I was reading an article in The New Yorker magazine speaking of the
sixth great species extinction, along with the catastrophes that killed off
the dinosaurs and other mass extinct ions in the history of the planet earth.1.
The article was commenting on the work done by Richard Leakey, who says
that earth loses between 20,000 and 100,000 species annually. What triggered
the New Yorker article is or was the mysterious disappearance of frogs from
tropical zones. The conclusion by Leakey and Colbert is that the arrival
of homo sapiens, just the fact of our presence, usually results in the extinction
of other species, and this was even true before before technology.
But apparently the fossil and other records tell that when we show up other
things start dying off.
Not mosquitoes, maybe, but our presence is not a happy one for our fellow
creatures.
Paul writes about that too in Romans.
And he tells what the answer is. Its in Romans chapter 8 if you want to check
into it.
The other piece of what Genesis tells us, is that in this garden of Eden,
God had the kind of relationship with the man and the woman that gave them
complete access to all of creation and to God Himself, in a totally natural,
unembarrassed way.
God gave them an amazing amount of autonomy and responsibility and the freedom
to be able to come to Him and talk about life and stuff. There was no baseball,
so conversations were somewhat more limited in scope, but I am sure they
made up for it in discussing botany and cosmology.
When the human race collectively decided to thumb its nose at God and go
our own way, a total alienation from God was the result, and we have inherited
the effect--separation and death--physical death and existential and eternal
death.
But God was not willing that death and alienation should have the last word.
If alienation were going to be final, then extinction would have been the
only option.
The reason is because we are in God's image, but broken; and because of this,
have the potential for great evil and suffering. The rest of creation does
not have that capacity. Whales, eagles and protozoa are morally neutral,
though God pronounced that part of creation as good when it was complete.
But humanity introduces moral choice and the capacity for great good or great
evil.
Unredeemed humanity would be the ultimate curse upon creation.
Being unwilling to destroy us and write us off, God has a plan to rescue
broken humanity. This raises a totally different issue, but that plan was
part of the original design. This is important because salvation is not God's
last ditch effort to deal with an unexpected outbreak of evil on the planet
He created. This was the original intent, to spend eternity with a humanity
who had been redeemed from the brink of disaster.
God's first action was to separate a small fragment of humanity and begin
working in them to bring to fruition the remedy for all humanity. God chose
Abraham and Abraham's descendants.
God first gave them the Law, which we read in the first five books of the
Bible.
Paul writes in Romans that the law could not, by itself, save us.
Its purpose was to give us a moral compass and a sense of perspective on
ourselves and our relationship with God.
The law does help us construct the social framework for collective living,
but by adhering to it, we cannot save ourselves.
The reason is because we cannot adhere to it with the level of moral perfection
required by God.
No matter our intent, we always fall short to some degree or another.
If you are leaping from a boat about to go over Niagara Falls, missing the
shore by an inch or ten feet really does not matter.
Either way, you are dead.
So the law is like a map. If you don't know where you are in the forest,
how can you find the right path?
All along God has made provision for forgiveness and mercy.
He did so by giving the people a process for obtaining forgiveness. This
involved animal sacrifice and making the appropriate forgiveness offerings.
Even then, it has always been more important what is in your heart than whether
you punch the right buttons. God has said many times that if you don't
really mean it, don't bother making religious gestures.
They are pointless.
But the reason they are there is as a visible demonstration that God is a
God of forgiveness and that we need to come to God recognizing the fact that
we need forgiveness.
And following God's law is important because it is a tangible way of saying,
"your way, not mine."
And the fact that when we follow God's way, life just works better.
As Gomer Pyle would say..."surrrrpriiiise! surpriiiiise!"
So God's plan was that there would be a remedy for all mankind.
The Bible says that "in the fulness of time, God sent for his son".
Jesus is God in the flesh. God with us.
He came, taught, lived and acted in the name of the same heart and mind as
God.
Jesus said on one occasion, "if you have seen me, you have seen the Father."
He came to demonstrate who God is.
He came to demonstrate what God does when we meet face to face.
He came to lay down his life for us, to pay the penalty for our sin.
He also came to demonstrate what a perfect human life would look like.
He came knowing he would die.
He did this in obedience to God the Father who sent Him for this purpose.
That purpose was to offer his life in place of ours.
Our rebellion deserves death and separation from God.
Jesus offered his life in place of ours so that we can approach God in faith
that we are forgiven.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:8:
But God
demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.
What this means is we are spared from judgment because the price of our rebellion
has already been paid.
How do you enter into this?
1. By agreeing that you too are a sinner in need of God's forgiveness.
The word we use is "confession". Confession in the
Greek means to say the same thing about something
that God says about it. He says it is sin. We agree and
say, yes it is sin. We agree with the diagnosis.
You go to a doctor with a nagging pain and after extensive
tests and consultation, she says, "you have a malignant tumor
we need to treat. There is a successful treatment"
What do you say?
"No I don't", or "OK, when do we begin?"
2. Having agreed to the diagnosis, you follow the treatment.
In this case, treating sin is availing yourself of the
only sure treatment available--God's mercy.
You access this through Jesus' death on your behalf.
You say as much to God.
"Lord I am a sinner and I need forgiveness. I ask your
forgiveness through Jesus death for me. Amen"
Remember this is not technique or formula, but it is understanding
the basis of forgiveness.
It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with what
God has done for you long before you knew
anything about it.
Come to God this way in faith and with a sincere commitment
to follow God from now on and you have found
forgiveness and will receive God's gift of eternal life.
3. The last thing is you trade in your road map for God's road map, which
means learning and implementing.
And to do that it is of amazing help to have other
people with you on this journey.
4. Give Him thanks regularly for what He has done. And remember salvation
means saved "to something" and not just
"from something". God is calling you into a life of new
purpose. Daily ask what His purpose is for you today, and do
your best to do what you now know.
That is what salvation means.
If you have not purposely crossed that bridge, or if you are not sure, be
sure today.
Pray this prayer with me, and make your peace with God.
Prayer:
Lord, I am the sinner you came to die for.
I acknowledge that. I ask for your forgiveness in Jesus alone--by what He
did for me. I put my trust in Him alone from here on out. Come into my life
with your Holy Spirit and help me to follow where you now lead. I will make
mistakes, but it is You I plan to follow. Amen
Preached June 7, 2009
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Notes
1. Elizabeth Kolbert, A Reporter at Large, “The Sixth Extinction?,”
The New Yorker, May 25, 2009
2. Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin, The Sixth Extinction, (Doubleday,
1995)
Resources Consulted
Online Resources Consulted
http://www.preachingtoday.com/
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