Salvation The BIG question – how is someone made right with God? The BIG problem – we have sinned against God who is infinitely holy and just. The BIG issue – all sinners are under Gods anger now and are spiritually dead.

Salvation Salvation is entirely a work of Gods grace and cannot be earned or deserved. It has been accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ and is offered to all in the gospel. God in his love forgives sinners whom he calls, granting them repentance and faith. All who believe in Christ are justified by faith alone, adopted into the family of God and receive eternal life.

Salvation So there are two parts to the question of salvation. Firstly, what God did through Jesus on the cross. Secondly, what God does through the Holy Spirit in the lives of people.

Salvation Before we go on to consider what happened at the cross we need to remember three essential truths about Jesus. 1. He is fully God. 2. He became fully human. 3. He was completely without sin. Why are these three truths absolutely vital in understanding what Jesus did for sinners on the cross?

Salvation The cross was the focal point of all that Jesus came to do. The Gospel writers spend about one-third of their writings on Christs last week. What Jesus did on the cross is so vast and incredible that Bible writers use various word pictures to try and describe it. 1. Temple – Propitiation 2. Market – Redemption 3. Lawcourt – Justification 4. Family - Reconciliation

Salvation Maybe one way we can remember this is through the CROSS acrostic. Which of our picture words goes with each heading? a. C ONQUERS b. R ECONCILES c. O BTAINS d. S UBSTITUTES e. S ATISFIES Family Market Temple Lawcourt

Salvation Which of the four word pictures do you find most powerful and helpful? And why? Now that weve grasped something of what the cross is about, and how God justly deals with sin, we need to turn our attention to how that work of Christ is applied to individual lives.

Salvation Salvation is not in any sense Gods response to anything in us. It is not something that we in any sense deserve or merit... The whole glory of salvation is, that though we deserved nothing but punishment and hell and banishment out of the sight of God to all eternity, yet God, of His own love and grace and wondrous mercy, has granted us this salvation. Now this is the entire meaning of the term grace. D.M. Lloyd-Jones

Salvation God is in control of all things. There is nothing in the whole of the universe and beyond that is outside the rule of God. This means that Gods salvation is not dependent upon us but upon him. Jesus did not come into the world to make salvation possible; he came to save. There is an enormous difference between making something possible and actually doing it. So we recognise the Bible truth that God takes the initiative in salvation and calls specific people to be saved.

Salvation When did God choose us? (Eph.1:4-6) Why did God choose us? (Rom.8:28-30; Eph.1:11-12) Is God unfair to choose some and not others? (Rom.9:14-24)

Salvation Number the following in the correct order. Sanctification. Faith. Glorification. Justification. Regeneration. Repentance

Salvation REGENERATION A dead person is unable to respond. They cannot move. They cannot see. They cannot cry out for help. They are dead. And in the same way it is impossible for the spiritually dead to respond to God. Before anything can happen, including repentance and faith, they have to be made alive. God must give the life that enables the response. The Bible calls this life giving act of God regeneration. What expression does Jesus use in John 3:7 to describe regeneration? Who is the person responsible for regeneration? (John 3:5-8)

Salvation repentance True repentance involves seeing sin for what it really is: not just a character defect, but a permanent posture of rebellion against the love and care and righteous authority of a holy God. It is this new understanding of God and of ones own sin that leads to true repentance. There will also be a great desire to break with the past and to live in future only to please God and for his glory. That is true repentance. Peter Jeffery

Salvation Faith Faith in itself means nothing. You can have faith that the world is flat and be wrong. The object of faith is what is essential. The faith the Bible speaks of is a confident trust that Jesus Christ is the only one who is completely able to deal with your sin. It means resting everything you are, you have and ever want to be upon that truth. It is more than intellectual assent.

Salvation Justification Justification is a special picture drawn from the law courts to illustrate what God does. It is his once for all declaration that the guilty sinner is righteous and that the demands of the law have been satisfied. It does not make the sinner any different in himself or herself, rather it is to do with our standing before God. It is that moment when God no longer regards us as guilty rebels deserving his wrath but instead views us as those who are as righteous as Jesus himself.

Salvation If you died tonight and God asked you why he should let you into his immediate presence, what would you say? What do you have faith in?