Episode 94 - Salvation Part 1

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. Hi and welcome to the unveiling. I'm Tim, one of the hosts, along with Ajay and Mark. We are three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you're encouraged by this episode. Let's dive right in. Hello, everybody, and welcome back. This is the unveiling with your host, Sajay, Mark and Tim. I think I probably just said that in the intro, but I'll say it again, it bears repeating. Look who's here. These, these very handsome men of faith. So I'm excited, guys. I'm really excited. We're doing, starting something tonight that I think will take us. It might take us a little while, but it's going to be, I think, rich, educational topic because whether you grew up in the church or didn't grow up in the church, what we're going to be talking about is the foundations of Christianity, but through the lens of grace. Grace. And so if you grew up in the church, that lens of grace changes things subtly from what you may have been taught in a church that is going to teach both grace and works from what you're used to. So the other is if you're not grown up a Christian, you may not be familiar with some of these terms at all. And we'll explain them the right way. The first time, I think, Andre, this was your topic, you suggested it. And I think tonight we're going to start off with salvation and tell me my understanding of the word of salvation is I am being rescued from something. Ajay, tell me what it means to you. [00:01:39] Speaker B: Yeah, so, yeah, Tim and Mark, it's good to see you again, as always. Yeah. So one thing I wanted to clarify is we call it as, for lack of better words, we call it as subjects, themes and topics, but these are actually the truth, truth of God's word. Right. These are the truths of the gospel. And the reason we are doing all this is, you know, when we know the truth, that will greatly benefit us. Right. It will set us free. As the Lord Jesus Christ said, when we know the truth, it will set us free. So I am going to, you know, we use the word salvation in Christianity and everyone says, yeah, I am saved. I am born again. But today we are going to dig into it a little more in terms of definitions and I want to start off with defining what salvation is and then we can take it from there. It's going to be, I will ask you to give me a little more time today than normal. It almost might sound like a monologue, but I just want to make sure that I Clearly define salvation. If that is okay, are you guys okay with that? [00:02:49] Speaker C: If we say no, will you still do it? Of course you will, Mark, because, hey, [00:02:54] Speaker A: like I said, Ajay brought this up, so I'm thinking he's coming with some great insight, and I'm hoping I'm all right. So, Ajay, go ahead. [00:03:01] Speaker C: We'll cover you for a while. [00:03:02] Speaker A: But if we interrupt. [00:03:05] Speaker B: All right, yeah. So the gospel is a death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the death that our Lord Jesus Christ died is a substitutionary death. And substitutionary means that Jesus did not die for himself, right? He died for us. And that means the fruit of the death is ours and the fruit of his death is resurrection. That means he died our death so that we can be raised with him in his resurrection. You know, that's what is the gospel. You know, when we talk about gospel, it's always the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And at the center of the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection. And everything we experience as Christians is in these three things. In his death, burial, resurrection. Of course, after resurrection, he also ascended, right? So Bible defines salvation as going from death to life. John 5:24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. You know, that's how our Lord Jesus Christ defines salvation. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16. Right? Everyone knows this verse. So what this means is if you don't have everlasting life, you will perish. For you not to perish, you must have everlasting life, and that everlasting life is salvation. And the whole book of John is about life that our Lord Jesus Christ is going to give to those who believes in his name. And here we see a clear definition of salvation. Ephesians 2, 4, 5. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love, with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. And in parenthesis it says, by grace you have been saved. So this is where the definition of salvation is. That is, when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, he made us alive together with Christ. You know, that's what salvation is. So as you can see, it's clearly, you can see that salvation is going from death Unto life we were dead, but now we were raised together with him in his resurrection. It is very important for us to understand, you know, salvation is going from death unto life. You know, when we understand that, we will have clarity on many other things that we talk about in Christianity and in Christian faith in general. So, yeah, I know, like Tim, you said, you know, being rescued, right? You know, Bible also talks about salvation as we go from kingdom of darkness to kingdom of his dear son. In Colossians 1:13, it says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. And Bible also talks about salvation as being freed from the dominion of sin. In Romans chapter six, it says we were slaves of sin, but now we have become slaves of righteousness. And Romans 5:17 says that salvation is going from reign of death to reigning with Christ. For if by one man's offence, death reigned by the 1, much more, they which receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. And like I said, you know, salvation Bible also talks about salvation is going from the reign of devil to the reign of Christ. So however, you know, even though Bible talks about the other things, you know, the rule of sin, the rule of devil and the reign of death, they are all in the realm of death. When we were dead in our sins and trespasses, we were serving Satan, sin and death. But when we go from death to life, we are freed from all three. We are freed from sin, we are freed from Satan, and we are freed from death. So salvation is going from death to life. And finally, I wanted to say one thing before I pass it to you. When Bible talks about going from death to life, it is not like there are some two spheres of existence. Oh, I am existing in the realm of life. Sorry, realm of death. But now I am going to the realm of life. That's not what it is. Bible doesn't talk about two realms. It actually talks about two men. We go from one man to another man. We all were born into Adam, you know, and we were dead in Adam. And when we are saved, we go from Adam to Christ. You know, that's what salvation is. At the. At the most basic level, you know, we have to explain all this for people to understand. But at the most basic level, or at the essential truth is in salvation, we go from Adam to Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15:22 says, In Adam, all die. In Christ, all shall be made alive. So it's basically tale of Two men. There is a. There's a, I think book called the Tale of Two Cities. Salvation is about tale of two men. We go from Adam to Christ. That's what salvation is. And finally, John 3. 36. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides in him. So not seeing life is damnation, and seeing life in our Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. [00:09:15] Speaker C: Excellent, Andre. That was excellent. So I want to get. I want to. Now that you've explained the entire thing, we'll just say good night here. [00:09:25] Speaker B: Well, I only explained salvation, but we didn't talk about how. [00:09:30] Speaker C: I'm just messing with you, so I want to. I want to. You like to double click on things. I want to. Page back. One page, scroll back. So just to kind of reiterate, Tim kind of touched on it. Salvation means a rescue from harm or danger. We live in a great day right now in which you can have the Bible on your computer, on your phone, on your iPad. And with that Bible, it gives you a digital concordance. You can type in salvation, Savior, saved, saved, every form of that and see every single scripture on that subject, which until recently, mankind has not been able to do. The apostle Paul couldn't do it with the Old Testament and Luther couldn't do it. We have that tool which brings us into another whole level of revelation, which is. Which is awesome. And so I use that yesterday and today as I prepared for today. And what I found out is that the term save appears 299 times in the Bible. Savior 59, salvation 114, saves 19, saved 110, saving 11. And there are many more words for save. There's words like rescue and deliver that I'm not even bringing up. But it's clear from COVID to cover that salvation is a central theme of the Bible. It's also clear that that salvation is our God and Savior, Jesus Christ himself. In fact, his very name, Jesus, which in Hebrew is Yeshua, literally means God is our salvation, or Yahweh saves. So when we talk salvation, we are talking Jesus. And as we love to always say on this podcast, it doesn't matter what theme we talk about. All roads lead back to the cross. They all lead back to Christ, and He is salvation. And we are just so thankful for that. [00:11:45] Speaker B: In fact, Mark, like you said, the final conclusion was salvation is going from Adam to Christ. So Christ is our salvation. It's not a place, it's not going from earth to Heaven or going from hell to heaven. You know, it's about going from death to life, which is going from Adam to Christ. [00:12:06] Speaker C: Yeah. And even from the moment Christ was born, Luke 2. 8 says, and there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks. At night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were terrified and. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger. So from his birth announcement and obviously even before that in provision prophecy, I mean, the Old Testament is constantly talking about God our Savior, that he will provide a Savior. Isaiah went into great detail on the coming Savior, but even from his birth announcement, he was announced as a Savior. As the Savior. [00:13:13] Speaker B: Mark, you know, you said the central theme of the Bible is salvation. And I wanted to, every time, you know, when you guys say something, I back up with scriptures. So I pulled a scripture to back up what you said. 2nd Timothy 3:15. You know, when we talk about, when Bible talks about scriptures, you know, sometimes we think it covers the whole Old Testament and the New Testament. But when the New Testament was written, when people were writing the New Testament, New Testament was not there. So the only Bible they had was the Old Testament. So when the New Testament says scripture, it's actually talking about the Old Testament. So we know the whole of the New Testament is about our Lord Jesus Christ and faith and grace and salvation. But the whole entire Old Testament is also about salvation. Second Timothy 3, 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. You know, it's really interesting. You know, this is actually referring to the Old Testament. You know, when Timothy was, when Timothy was written, when Paul was writing the letter to Timothy, none of the New Testament books were there. They were just there, here and there as lectures. But they are not the authoritative scriptures. They are epistles, they are letters. They are historical documents. But when Bible talks about scriptures, it is actually talking about the Old Testament. And here it is saying, you know, the Old Testament is able to make you wise unto salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That means entire Old Testament is also about salvation. You know, sometimes we think Old Testament is about, yeah, you know, the good diet, you know, it's about laws and it's about rules and it's about how did Daniel do this? How. How did Esther won the favor of the king? It's not about that. You know, they are good stories, but the real message in the Old Testament is our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:15:17] Speaker A: It was a shadow of things to come. It was about taking the law. Jesus completed the law in that he did everything. He was a sacrifice once for all. Not the once. Yearly. He was blemishless. He committed no sin. He was put to death for. For not doing a bloody thing. You know, I mean, wrong, nothing. Not even according to the Jew. Jewish principles and stuff. It was amazing. So the entire New Old Testament. Sorry, the entire Old Testament is a foreshadowing of Jesus coming to put back together the relationship between man and God. [00:15:56] Speaker B: Yep, yep. [00:15:57] Speaker C: That's a. That's a great point, Tim. And I love the way you put it, how Jesus completed the law. He himself said, I didn't come to do away with the law, but to fulfill the law. Not even, he said, not even a pen stroke will disappear. But what I love is that Jesus so fully met the righteous requirement. He met that requirement morally. He lived a perfect moral life. So according to the moral law to every single point, he fulfilled it perfectly ceremonially, as a Jew and a member of the people of Israel. He kept every dietary law, every festival and ceremony. And then finally, there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. So sacrificially, he fulfilled the law by shedding his blood for us. And what Romans 8 tells us is that he not only fully met the righteous requirement of the law, he met that in us on our behalf. [00:17:02] Speaker A: And. [00:17:02] Speaker C: And that is salvation right there. Thank you, Lord. [00:17:07] Speaker A: That's. That's the gospel. Jesus Christ and him crucified you. You know it. Can I take us down a little left turn? Or did you want to address something before I started talking? [00:17:17] Speaker B: Ajay, go ahead. No, go ahead. [00:17:20] Speaker A: Well, I just want to talk about. I just want to talk about salvation. A lot of people will say, I'm saved. Okay? I've asked a ton of people. How. How did you get saved? And now you'd be surprised. Man number one answer, Mark. Want to guess? [00:17:36] Speaker C: No. [00:17:38] Speaker A: The sinner's prayer, it's not. It's the sinner's prayer. It's not. People treat that like it's some kind of magic incantation, but it's not. That really doesn't have anything to do with being saved. The sinner's prayer is a tool to help you Think it into yourself because what really is the way you get saved is by believing rightly in Jesus Christ, him crucified, raised from the dead and Lord of your life. Now that's the way you become saved. Of course you're, you're going to, once you do this, you're going to be forgiven and you're going to have all this weight lifted off of you. Probably going to say, oh, Lord, I'm so sorry for all that. Which he's going to say, oh, what? I don't, I don't get what you're saying anymore, you know, so it's not a magic incantation. It is a true heart belief in the words of Jesus Christ and him crucified. [00:18:32] Speaker C: You know the thief on the cross, Tim, that you love to allude to? I don't remember him ever saying a sinner's prayer. He just said, lord, remember me, remember me. And Jesus said, I'll tell you the truth. You're going to be with me in paradise today. The thing to realize, and that's been impressed upon me more and more is just people that are saved. We are all empty handed. We have nothing we can bring. We have nothing we can add to our own salvation, nothing we can add to our own sanctification. Nothing we can do to warrant greater blessing except come to Christ empty handed and just say, lord, remember me. [00:19:16] Speaker A: Ajay, I'm going to toss this to you in a second, but I wanted to add one thing because Mark, you just talked about the sinner on the cross. You're right. I love this guy. He is one of my heroes because he dispels so much religion. You know, Jesus, of course, was the first religion buster, but he was closely number two in my book. But he, can you imagine being him? All of a sudden he's, he dies and pops up in heaven. Poof, I'm in heaven. And he's looking around going, what is this place? A couple of guys hanging out in heaven come up to him and say, hey, who are you? Was a guy and I don't know where I was and I don't know where I am that well, you're in heaven, Why? I, I don't know. This guy in the cross next to me said, meet me here and poof, here I am. He doesn't even get it, you know, I mean, you don't have to understand all of the mechanics and details and you, what you have to know is Jesus Christ and him crucified in your heart. That's it. Yeah, sorry, Ajay, go for it, baby. [00:20:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm going to pile on. On the thief on the cross. So we are. No, you know, we are saved. You know, again, you know, if you look at the core truth, the way we are saved is by believing the truth about the person and the work of Lord Jesus Christ. So the reason the thief on the cross was saved, even without any words, right, he actually said, lord, remember me. But I think the reason he was saved, right, Even those words, I think did not save him. What saved him was he saw who Jesus was, you know, the thief on the other side, he did not see who Jesus was. He thought, you know, he was some guy who made some claims, you know, he was. The other thief was actually getting angry and demanding. Jesus, right? Hey, if you are this, if you are that, if you are really the son of God, you know, why don't you save yourself and save us also? That was the other thief's attitude because he did not see who Christ was. But this thief, suddenly he had a revelation and he saw, you know, the guy next to me is no ordinary man. He is the son of God. And he actually, we are believed. No, no, we are saved by believing Christ died on the cross, right? And he's the son of God. But for the thief, he saw it in action. He literally saw Lord Jesus Christ dying and he realized that he is the son of God. And with that revelation, he is saved instantly because salvation is by believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead. And also in John it says, whoever believes that Jesus is the son of God, right, they are saved. They are the children of God. So the thief on the cross had a realization that the man next to him is no ordinary man. He's the son of God. [00:22:07] Speaker C: That's a great stipulation, Ajay. And I was not meaning. My meaning wasn't that. It was the words remember me that saved him. It was his faith in believing that Jesus was who he said he was that caused him to say, remember me that saved him. [00:22:26] Speaker B: I was not addressing you, Mark. I was just saying in general. [00:22:31] Speaker A: Well, Abraham came before Jesus, so, you know, he didn't have the opportunity to do that, but he was still counted as righteous because of his faith in God and his works that came out of that faith. Right. So he had no magic prayer. It was no one. The prayer too, at least at the. He knew of, you know, just. Just God. [00:22:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. In fact, in Genesis, I think it's chapter 15, that is iconic work. That iconic verse that Paul used right. In the explaining the Gospel of Salvation. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. So he was. The whole doctrine of justification by faith is based on this single verse that Abraham believed God. You know, he did not do any works, but he simply believed God. So the account is that God took Abraham out, right? And he said, in you, I'll bless all the nations of the earth. Whether Abraham believed it or not, he was actually referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, you know, in thy seed, in the Lord Jesus Christ, that all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And that blessing is justification by faith. You know, we can go into that some other time. But the point is, you know, when God told Abraham that, I'm going to bless you, and in your seed I'm going to bless you all the nations of the earth and look at the stars, right? You know, your seed will be like the stars. Then. Until that point, you know, Abraham did not believe. He was like, you know, God, you told me you will give me a child. Where is a child? Right? You know, let. Let Hagar's child be my child. So he had doubts until that point. But Suddenly in Genesis 15, when God took him out and told him, your children will be like these stars, he believed. And at that moment, he was justified and he was saved for eternity. [00:24:37] Speaker C: Well, okay, so I've got a couple points here that come from scripture that I really like that kind of go into the nature of that salvation. In Titus 2:11, the apostle Paul writes to Titus, a young pastor. He says, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. And then he goes on to say that salvation came by the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I love the two points he's making there, that this salvation isn't just for some, it's for all people. And I also love this title that he gives Jesus, our great God and Savior. Because there are so many Christian cults and offshoots of true Christianity that don't believe that Jesus is God. And they don't believe that the Bible teaches that which they are completely wrong on. Because we could do an episode on this time. There are dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of scripture like this that actually call Jesus our great God and Savior. And I just love that scripture because of that. So just to kind of address what the main thing we've talked about so far is that Christ has saved us from death, well, from sin, and then resulting in saving us from death and saving us unto life. And Scripture, if you get into it, Scripture talks about lots of different types of salvation, especially in the Psalms, God saving us from our enemies, from foes, from affliction and disease, and so many different kinds of salvation. But as I look at it, I realize that those all come in because of that fact that we were first saved from our sin, saved from death, which has made us his children and heirs. One of my favorite scriptures is in Romans 8 that says, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? So it's that primary salvation that came in that opens up God's power, his intervention, his intercession into our life to save us through all areas of our life. [00:27:10] Speaker A: Can I reiterate on this episode that that was plan A from the very beginning. There was no plan B. Jesus Christ going to the cross to save humanity was God's plan from creation. And before even this is, we look at this like it's. God didn't sit there and go, oh, humanity's out of control. I guess I got to better do something. My son can save them, we can put him down. You know, he didn't. He was like, they're going to screw it up. They're going to be terrible. They're going to miss the mark all the time. So I'm going to save them because I want to have them back in relationship with me. And this is how we're going to do it from before. Before time began. [00:27:51] Speaker C: That is an awesome point that cannot be overestimated and over meditated upon that this was God's only plan, his perfect plan. Scripture tells us before the creation, even before the beginning of time, there was no hemming or hawing or adjusting when we couldn't fulfill the law or when people got to evil and God sent the flood. No, no, it was Christ from before the beginning of time and everything else that happened in history. Human history is a servant to that, to that gospel. The law is a servant to the gospel. Paul tells us that the law was given not to make us better people or to have us live in harmony. Yeah, the law is awesome and good and it will achieve those things. Things. But it was given to show us that we are sinners, that we are not capable of fulfilling that law, make us conscious of sin. Paul said. And he also said the law was to make, as a loves to point out. It's a great point. Sin existed before the law came. The law didn't make us sinners. It was the fact that sin existed in us that caused us to break the law and just that that law was given so that we would see sin as not just being something little that we could sweep under the rug and say, oh, you know what, I'm better than that guy over there who cheats on his wife. I'm better than that guy who's a drug addict. No, it's to make all of us realize our sin. And the term Paul uses is that our sin is utterly sinful. So the law was just a servant to the gospel, the good news of the message of God's grace. Jesus Christ and him crucified before the beginning of time, before the beginning of creation. [00:29:46] Speaker A: So let me just pull two points out of that real fast. Mark, and that is the first one before the law. Well, to be able to have a law, it's a rule. To be able to break a rule, you have to have a rule, right? So you didn't break a rule, you didn't break a law before the law was brought. So the law was simply put there to show you what is right and wrong and what you're doing. And so it was a mirror to show ourselves who we are and what we are. And I forgot point two. So go ahead. [00:30:14] Speaker C: Well, it shows us what our greatest need is too, that we are in desperate need of a Savior, that there is no other way for us to have salvation come into our life. That's it. Jesus Christ and him crucified. [00:30:29] Speaker B: Yeah, so that's a good segue to, you know, what I was going to talk about. You know, we talked about what salvation is. I think we also covered these two points in our discussion, but I would like to call them out. I think we talked about, you know, what salvation is and you know, maybe we can quickly cover who needs salvation and how people are saved, just, you know, more systematically. I know we already talked about it. The reason I want to talk about the second point is who needs salvation? Right. You know, some people think, especially self righteous people or you know, some people who have a different theology, they don't think everybody needs salvation. You know, in fact, some preachers that say that Jews really don't need salvation, but you know, we want to, we want to address that real quick. Romans 5:12, Therefore justice through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. You know, we just said, you know, salvation is going from death to life. And here Bible says that death spread to all men, not a few people. So anyone who, who is born or who is in the Adamic race, right, who is basically entire humanity, right? Whoever is a human being, they need salvation because the death spread to all men. Everyone born into this world, they are born dead. So spiritually dead, right? So they will. Everyone needs salvation. You know, there are some theologies, I don't know, like I heard somewhere, you know, Jews are automatically saved. I don't know why they say that. But regardless, you know, whether they're automatically saved or whatever. But everybody in the world needs salvation. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. It's not limited to just a few people. I'm going to stop here. Any thoughts? [00:32:38] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a great point, Ajay. And here's something that just occurred to me that as we've just got done talking about the gospel was before the beginning of creation, before the beginning of time. That was God's purpose and plan, Jesus Christ, all men to come to him. So he was before that plan was before the people of Israel were even created. So of course they need him as much as any other person does. And I've already mentioned in Titus 2:11 that says, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. And Also in Acts 4:12, the apostle Peter said, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. And you know, it's kind of funny because atheists and so many people put up the argument that, oh, that's so narrow minded. How can you say there's only one way to heaven? First of all, look at all truth in the world. Truth is always exclusive of everything that's false, that's a lie. You know, you may not like the law of gravity and say, wow, that's really narrow minded. The thing that I can't stand step off this skyscraper and plummet to my death. That's the nature of truth. Truth is exclusive. The only question is, is it true or not? And that's what every person has to hopefully devote everything that's in them to getting that answer, to selling that answer for themselves. You know what? I can respect somebody who does their I hate to use the word homework, but prays that prayer, Lord, if you're there, show me. If Christ is the way, show me. And then reaches a decision after chewing on that for years and years, I can respect that. But someone who just sweeps it under the mat or just says, ah, you know what I saw on tv that it's not real. They made fun of Jesus and His followers. So you got to settle that for yourself because truth is always exclusive of everything. That's not. [00:34:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Another way to answer that is Mark, again, you know, when we understand that salvation is actually life, you know, the eternal life of God, it's not the fallen life of humanity. There is no other religion that offers life. You know, the only religion where a human being died and rose again, no other religion has resurrection. In fact, you know, it's. Incidentally, you know, maybe they could have just made up a story, but none of the gods in any religion, they rose from the dead in many religions, gods became human in mythology, but none of them rose from the dead. Only Jesus Christ, he was raised from the dead. And that resurrection life is salvation. [00:35:43] Speaker C: Well, you know, Ajay Tim, he's usually the master of the nitpicking, but I'm going to have to pick a few nits here. And I know you didn't mean anything by this, but I really don't like the word religion combined with the name of Jesus Christ because he is not a religion. He is a person. That's the difference between Christianity and all other worldviews and systems. It's about a religion. And I'm just quibbling about the definition of that word. Many people throughout the centuries have meant Jesus Christ and him crucified and use the term religion. But technically, the word religion is a set of rules and creeds and beliefs and things you have to do and not do. Jesus Christ is a person who came for us, who is the savior of the world. He didn't come to give us another religion. He came to give us himself. [00:36:41] Speaker B: Amen. [00:36:43] Speaker A: That's great, Mark. I like that. [00:36:46] Speaker B: Do you guys. I know we are going to go into this a lot more, but I also want, you know, since we are talking about salvation, we don't want to leave the episode without clearly telling people how we are saved. I know we already touched on it before, but, you know, I just wanted to emphasize, you know, many people, when even, you know, if you hear any common, if you go to any evangelical crusade, right, you know, when they eventually give an invitation to people, many of them really give the proper invitation. So they add some works. You know, hey, if you're smoking, you know, you have to stop smoking and then come to Christ. Or if you're doing, if you have all these bad habits, you know, you need to stop these and then come to Christ, right? And they pull some scriptures, okay? If you are fighting with someone, right, if you have some bitterness in heart, you go to. You need to go to that person first, reconcile, and then come back to Christ. And if you have any unconfessed sin in your life, you need to confess, right? Or if you did something, if you stole something from somebody, right? You have to do, what is it? You have to give it back. What is the biblical Dhamma? I forgot. Giving back what you stole. [00:38:01] Speaker C: Restitution. [00:38:02] Speaker B: Restitution, yeah, you have to do restitution. So they add at least a single condition, right? You know, that's what basically, they may not mean it, but that will basically stop that person from being saved. Because that one condition he can never fulfill. So even if you put a very, very small condition for salvation, they are not going to do it. And even in crusades, like, you know, they say, turn from your sin and believe on Lord Jesus Christ. What is turning from sin? It may mean different things to different people. For me, turning from sin is like, you have to absolutely stop all sinning and then come to Jesus. For some, it may be something else, right? Oh, you have to make a decision in our heart never to sin. And they. I think, you know, maybe we should make another full episode on this. What are not the conditions of the gospel? But, you know, I'm quickly going through many because I myself struggle with that. And people say, hey, you have to make Jesus the Lord of your life. There is this whole idea of lordship, salvation. You know, none of these things are necessary. Lord Jesus Christ said, you know, believe only, right? You know, believe only. That's it. You know, we have to believe. We have to stop all kinds of working. And some people say, you have to do your best to keep the law and then you'll be saved. None of these things are necessary. The only thing needed is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. I just want to read this one verse and then give it to you. This is my favorite verse. Romans 4. 4. Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work but believe on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So the condition is. Actually, a lot of people preach the condition as, you have to work and believe. But the scripture clearly says, you must not work. To him who does not work but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. You must not work but believe. Go ahead. [00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm listening to you say this stuff, and I can hear some of the pastors of the past, yes, you're saved by grace, but now you have to well, if I could have done any of the stuff you're about to tell me I have to do before, I wouldn't have needed to get saved. I couldn't do all that myself. I can't do all that myself, not even now. And I've been a Christian for over 40 years, so I don't know why. We start setting conditions and it's come to Jesus as you are, accept that he died for you, resurrected, and he gave his life to save you and forgive your sins. That's it. That's it. Don't put the and or the but. There are no ands or buts in the gospel. [00:41:08] Speaker C: Yep, absolutely. And you know, Tim, I've heard those same pastors. If I had a dime for every time I've heard them say this, I'd be a wealthy man. They say, repent of your sin for forgiveness and turn to God. And that's become a catchphrase for pastors. Repent of your sin. Repent of your sin. First of all, they've got the definition of repent wrong. But more importantly, nowhere in scripture does it say repent of sin for forgiveness. What it does say over and over and over again is repent for forgiveness of sin, not repent of sin for forgiveness, repent for forgiveness of sin. And repent simply means metanoia to change your mind, to rethink. And that's how we come into forgiveness. And then our sin becomes a non issue because Christ is so thoroughly, efficiently and sufficiently taken care of that, that we've died with him and have been raised to new life and we're no longer sinners. We are his children and heirs. [00:42:18] Speaker B: Yeah, righteousness. I want to actually be more specific about what that metanoia is. Right. What do we need to change our mind about? You know, when the New Testament talks about repentance, it is talking about two things. One is repenting of your dead works. You don't work for your salvation, repent of that right. You know, that is the Old Testament or that is a law says you know, you have to work, but gospel says you must not work, so you repent of your dead works. And the second is repent of your unbelief. In fact, repent in the New Testament, repentance and believing are two, two sides of the same coin. So you got to repent of your unbelief and put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:43:00] Speaker C: Yep, great point, Ajay. Change your mind about your ability to work for being good or being accepted or saved by God because you can't do it. And one of the things we touched on a week or two ago was, and recently I've been reading Martin Luther on this too, is that it's not left up to you to mix works with faith in Christ. It's faith in Christ alone is you're not given that. Oh, that choice or option. The Apostle Paul says that when you do that, you're perverting the gospel, you're falling away from grace, you're being alienated from Christ and making his work on the cross of no effect in your life. It has not been given to you as an option that as some sort of insurance policy or to make yourself feel better that you're going to add works to that you cannot add. It only subtracts. [00:44:03] Speaker B: Yeah, [00:44:06] Speaker A: go ahead, Ajay. I'm sorry, I was just going to say. That is a foundational statement there, I'm telling you. [00:44:11] Speaker B: Yeah, Yep. Yeah. You know, I was just going to say, you know, people who are adding works, even a small condition to the gospel, they are depriving people of salvation, you know, of eternal salvation, Right? And of course, you know, who have a heart to be saved, you know, Lord will eventually save them by giving them the true gospel like he gave it to us. But imagine all the time, you know, they spent in fear, right, Striving to save, I mean, striving to be saved, right? You know, sincerely trying all those things that they are told that are conditions of salvation. You know, even now, right? You know, people don't boldly declare, hey, you know, you don't need to do anything. There are very, very few churches that really give the salvation message as, hey, you don't need to do anything. You just have to believe in the person and work of Lord Jesus Christ. Very, very few churches, they just add one thing or other and they don't have the audacity or the boldness to simply declare the gospel as it is. But think of it, right? Even if you had a single condition, a small condition, even as small condition as, hey, you know, you need to wake up every day at 5 o', clock, even that they can't do it has nothing to do with sin. We simply can't do it. So there are absolutely no conditions to salvation. If it is by grace, it cannot be by works. Otherwise grace is no longer grace. Go ahead, Mark. [00:45:49] Speaker C: I was just going to say, and if we do try to do that, it really is a gross underestimation of the power of the cross, as though I can somehow add anything to that perfect, astounding powerful work that Christ did for us from before the beginning of creation in time. This was the plan. And here's little old me now. I'm gonna do X, Y, and Z to make that plan a little more effective. It sounds really religious and holy and, you know, for a lot of these pastors to be saying, oh, we got to do this, we got to do that. So pious. But it's not based upon truth. In fact, it's perverting the gospel and you're just taken away. [00:46:38] Speaker B: Yep. [00:46:39] Speaker A: Well, guys, we're running up against the time limit again. We get into these discussions, tell you what, time just flies, baby. But as always, we want to give each of us a chance to give a quick statement before we sign off for the week. And Ajay, why don't you kicked it off? This is your idea. Why don't you start? All right. [00:46:57] Speaker B: Yeah. So this is my favorite scripture, so I'm going to bring it up again. Romans 11:6. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace, otherwise work is no longer work. So if we are saved by grace, you cannot bring works into the picture, otherwise grace will no longer be grace. So we are not talking about grace will not produce works. But when it comes to getting, receiving your salvation and anything from God, you must not bring works. If it is by grace, it cannot be by works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. So my invitation to our listeners is, you know, come boldly to the throne of grace. Come just as you are, Lord Jesus Christ. What he did is enough for now and eternity. Just come believe that he has died for you, and he rose again for you on the third day. And in his name, we are offering you the forgiveness of sin. Everyone that believes will be justified from all things, and you will be made a new creation, and you will be granted eternal life. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen. [00:48:16] Speaker C: Ajay, I'm just going to kind of stay in that vein with you and make this personal for all of us, for all our listeners, both believers and unbelievers, by closing up with a couple scriptures here in Hebrews 2. 2, the apostle Paul talks about the law. And he says, for since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? The Apostle Paul is saying, hey, we're not just breaking the law, we're dead. We are completely. We are without excuse. So how can we escape if we ignore this great salvation. He says, the salvation which was first announced by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his word. And then finally, in 2nd Corinthians 3, 6, the apostle Paul says this, and Ajay and Tim and I say this as well. As God's co workers, we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For God says, in the time of my favor, I heard you. And in the day of salvation, I helped you. I tell you, now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. Let this be true of you today, listener. If you don't know Christ, just put. Just as the thief on the cross did. Just believe he is who he said he is. Put your faith in him. And if you are a believer, but you have been led astray to believe that, you had to add something. You had to add your great behavior and perform better. Do this, don't do that. Let this be the day that you rely completely and solely on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. [00:50:22] Speaker B: Amen. [00:50:24] Speaker A: Man, I don't know how I taught both of those. Mark, you gave the invitation. I was hoping to make sure we got out here in this episode, if we're talking about salvation, we want people to say, I love you, Lord. I accept you, Lord. And that's wonderful. But I will say one more thing. A lot of teachers will turn, will teach grace and works together, and it'll sound something. It'll sound righteous, it'll sound pious, it'll sound good and right. Because a lot of things sound right to a man that aren't. But they're going to say, hey, yes, of course salvation is by grace. You can't save yourself. Jesus died to save you. But once you've accepted him, you have to work in cooperation with God and the leading of the Spirit. No. Okay, settle down, settle down there, guys. What I have to do is keep believing. Because the Lord, the Spirit who lives in me, will bring out what he wants of me from me, by me. And I won't have to work at it. And when I do it, it won't even be work. Because he's going to give me the power to do it, the energy to do it, the love to do it, the great attitude to do it, everything. It's not going to be drudgery. It's going to be, oh, look what I get to do today. Hallelujah. So with that, guys, I am so glad you all came to listen. I hope you'll stick around for the next coming weeks as we continue to go through foundations. I don't know how long this take, none of us do, but it's going to be a ride and we want you along. Thanks again for coming and we'll talk to you again the next time. Thanks for listening today. We hope you were encouraged and uplifted. If so, we encourage you to subscribe and share our podcast with your friends and family. You can listen and subscribe on most popular podcast apps. Well, that's it for us today. As always, God bless and we will talk to you the next time.