August 27, 2017
Back to Basics
Salvation
In it's most basic form, here is what salvation is:
- We were created for relationship with God
.
- We mess that up when we sin
.
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.
- Our sin means we deserve death.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death.
- Jesus paid the price for that sin
.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- Salvation is a free gift that God wants to give us.
Romans 10:9
If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
At it’s core,
salvation comes down to this:
God wants relationship with you,
and He makes it work
so that all you have to do is say yes.
Sometimes we treat salvation like a “Get Out of Hell Free” card.
Heaven is a good place because it’s spending an eternity where God is.
Hell is a bad place because it’s spending eternity away from where God is.
So, when we treat salvation like a “Get Out of Hell Free” card, we’re acting out of fear of our future location, we’re not looking at God at all. If the core of what salvation is actually about is God, then us responding to fear of a location isn’t really salvation at all.
Sometimes we talk about salvation without understanding what the goal really is.
We can easily look at salvation like it is the end goal of following Jesus,
but it’s not… (it’s arguably the most important part)
but it’s not the end, it’s the beginning.
2 economics professors at Emory University did a study of 3,151 adults in the United States who are, or have been, married. The study found that women whose wedding cost more than $20,000
divorced at a rate roughly 1.6 times higher
than women whose wedding cost between $5,000 and $10,000. Couples who spent $1,000 or less on their wedding day
had a lower than average rate of divorce.
It's a great thing to celebrate our moment of salvation, but when we focus on the moment of our salvation and we don’t focus on who Jesus is and how he afforded us that salvation, we’re missing the point.
Communication Card
- I’d like to sit down with a leader and talk about what salvation is.
- I decided to follow Jesus today for the first time!
- I will strive to better live out my relationship with God.
