With this in mind I am excited to embark on this study through the doctrine of salvation because it is the single most important doctrine in all of Christendom. Because of this it comes under the most attack from the devil in the mind of both the believer and the unbeliever.
1. The meaning of Salvation. Salvation means to effect successfully the full delivery of someone from impending danger. The word carries with it twofold implications:
A. That someone needs to be saved.
1. Only a sick person needs a doctor. Man is desperately ill.
Isaiah 1:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Mat 9:12 But when he heard it, he said, They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick.
2. Only an accused person needs a lawyer. Man stands condemned in God’s court of law.
Rom 3:10 -19 as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God; They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no, not, so much as one: Their throat is an open sepulchre; With their tongues they have used deceit: The poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
3. Only a drowning person needs a lifeguard. Man finds himself flooded by the waters of sin.
Psalm 69:1-2 For the Chief Musician; set to Shoshanim. A Psalm of David. Save me, O God; For the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
4. In his excellent book, Salvation is Forever Robert Gromacki lists the following reasons men are lost.
a. They are lost because of their rejection of biblical revelation
Psalm 19:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Act 14:17 Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
Rom 1:19-20 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. God is not invisible!
b. They are lost because of disobeying their own conscience.
Rom 2:14-16 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
c. They are lots because of their relationship to the world.
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Jam 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
1Jo 2:15 - 17 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
d. They are lost because of their relationship to Satan.
Mat 4:8-9 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
John 8:42 -44 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Colossians 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
1 John 3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
1Jo 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
e. They are lost because of their relationship to sin.
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Gen 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Mar 7:20-23 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Eph 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
A sinner may not be as bad as he can be (like an Adolf Hitler) but he is nevertheless as bad off as he can be. Man is both dead (spiritually) and dying (physically) See Gen 2:17. This can be likened to a condemned criminal on death row awaiting the electric chair and suffering from terminal cancer.
f. They are lost because of their relationship to God.
John 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Believeth (Mah; Greek) What! End, good, purpose, thing.
Eph 2:12 that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
1Jo 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Jud 1:18-19 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
B. That someone is able and willing to save. Such a Saviour must fulfill both requirements.
- He must be able to save. It is possible for a person to have the desire but not the ability to save another individual. Many a physician has stood in utter frustration bedside the bed of dying patient, wanting so much to give aid, but totally helpless to so.
- He must be willing to save. It is possible for a person to have the ability to save but not the willingness to save another individual. In 1978 a man in the United Sates, in desperate need of a rare blood transfusion, died. The tragedy of the story was that he suffered and died needlessly, for one of his relatives possessed that rare type of blood and could have easily donated some, stubbornly refused. Perhaps the greatest ability after all is availability.
Hebrews 2:18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
Eph 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
2Ti 1:12 For which cause I suffer also these things: yet I am not ashamed; for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto him against that day.
Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Jude 1:24 Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy,
2. He is willing to save.
Mat 8:2-3 And behold, there came to him a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou made clean. And straightway his leprosy was cleansed.
1Ti 2:3-4 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.
2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Taken Mostly from Willmington's Guide To the Bible. More to come if interested...
Edited by Watchwithme, 21 July 2012 - 05:03 AM.
