The Way of Salvation

In the beginning, our Triune God made everything (Gen 1–2). As the eternal Architect and Builder of all things, God made you and me by His design (Heb 3:4; 11:10). The mold of Adam, the first man, has been corrupted, however. The Bible calls this flaw “sin” (Gen 3).

Each person is flawed from conception in his or her mother’s womb (Ps 51:5; Rom 5:12). This corruption is detectable from a very early age. It is the very nature of the natural man, being himself a sinner. Sin reigns in his mortal flesh and all he does is sin against God (Rom 3:23; Eph 2:3).

Sin is lawlessness (1 Jn 3:4). It is God’s Law through Moses that reveals the kinds of trespasses and iniquities people practice each day (Ex 20; Dt 5). There are consequences for sinning against the thrice Holy God who judges us with perfect justice (Gen 18:25). For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ upon our physical death because of sin (2 Cor 5:10; Rev 20:11). It is appointed for a man to die once and then comes the judgment of the righteous Judge (Heb 9:27).

Sinners must be holy and blameless before the Holy God. Otherwise, the righteous Judge will say to them, “Depart from Me you who do iniquity (Mt 25:41; c/f 7:21–23).” The sentence of eternal punishment in the fiery hell of the lake of fire is just recompense for criminal sinners (Jude 7; Rev 20:14–15). Gnashing their teeth in outer darkness, in conscious torment, sinners will pay their debt for rebellion against God forever and ever. Amen.

This grim picture of humanity’s future in eternity is the bad news of the Bible. There is no one who is righteous. There are none who do good. No one seeks after God or even understands that their so called “good deeds” are judged to be filthy rags (Is 64:6; Rom 3:10–12). Who even believes our report regarding the total depravity of humanity (Gen 6:5; Jer 17:9; Is 53:1; Jn 15:5; Rom 3:10–12; Eph 2:12).

God calls all men to repent, that is, to turn from this world of sin (Acts 17:30). He sends heralds to the nations (Mt 24:14), even to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). These Spirit-filled men of God are called by God and sent by God to preach the Gospel of God (1 Cor 1:23; 2:2). This is the good news that God our Savior has come into the world to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21; Titus 2:13). He saved us (Titus 3:5); and then He made us aware that He saved us (Jn 3:16).

The eternal Son of God, being one with the Father and the Spirit, has emanated from the Father as the only begotten Son (Jn 3:16). With the radiance of His glory, the Son took on flesh and dwelt among us as one like us yet without sin (Jn 1:14; 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15). The long-awaited Messiah had come to defeat the enemies of God and to bring many sons to glory, by purchasing His church out of the slave market of sin by His precious blood (Acts 20:28; Rom 6:6; Heb 2:10; 1 Pet 1:19).

Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Eph 1:7; Rev 1:5), but the Lamb of God, Jesus of Nazareth (Jn 1:29), died for our sins (Rom 5:8; 1 Cor 15:3). He was crucified in the shame of a common criminal, on a Roman cross at Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem. Despised and forsaken of men, He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities (Is 53:3, 5). Yet, for the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross (Heb 12:2). He bore our sins in His body on the cursed tree (1 Pet 2:24).

God was reconciling us to Himself, even demonstrating His love toward us (Rom 5:8, 2 Cor 5:19). As Jesus suffered the wrath of God, He was receiving all the imputed sins of all of God’s elect from every nation and from across history (2 Cor 5:21). When His substitutionary sacrifice for atonement was fully accomplished, Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” (Jn 19:30). Now, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).

There is a full number belonging to the flock of the Good Shepherd (Ps 23; Jn 10), whose names were written in the Lamb’s book of life from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8; 17:8; 21:27). God the Father and God the Son send God the Holy Spirit to go into all the world, in every generation, to gather the flock of God into the fold of Christ — men and women; Jew and Gentile; slave and free (Jn 14:26; 15:26; Gal 3:28). These are the elect saints of God, predestined by the Father to adoption as sons and given to God the Son (Jn 6:37, 39; 17:2, 6, 24; Rom 8:15, 23; Eph 1:4–5).

The Holy Spirit comes to each one for whom Christ died. The means by which the Spirit approaches is the Spirit-filled preacher of the Gospel truth. The life-giving Word finds its place in the mouth of the preacher and then in the heart of those whose ears are made to hear, by God’s sovereign grace and choice (Jn 1:12–13; Rom 11:5; 1 Thess 4:6).

Christ crucified is the one and only way to the Father and eternal life in His presence in the world to come (1 Cor 1:18, 23; 2:2). “Be saved from this perverse generation!” is proclaimed (Acts 2:40).

Hearers of the Gospel of God’s salvation are keen to ask what they must do to be saved (Acts 16:30); or, they wish to do the works of God to gain His favor (Jn 6:29). The answer is that to the one who does not work but who believes in Jesus, who justifies the ungodly, this faith is reckoned to him as righteousness (Rom 4:5). Stated another way, for you my dear reader to have a legal right standing before God — as a condemned sinner already (Jn 3:18) — you must believe in the Person of Jesus Messiah and His perfect work in life and in death (Acts 16:31).

Faith in Christ is the free gift of God, exclusively granted by the grace of God, to whom the Spirit has been given (Acts 5:32; Rom 5:5; Eph 2:8–9; Phil 1:29). The Holy Spirit causes God’s chosen people to be born again of God (Jn 3:1–8; 1 Pet 1:3), that is, He transfers us into the kingdom of God’s Son and in so doing gives us new life in Christ (Col 1:13). The new man is a new creature having the life of God in his soul (2 Cor 5:17). The Spirit takes up permanent residence in the soul of God’s elect, redeemed, and regenerated people (Rom 8:9, 11); and faith is manifest in them, by God, at the appointed time (Lk 17:5; Acts 6:7; 2 Cor 10:15; Heb 12:2).

My dear friend, there is no decision, no choice, no asking of Jesus, and no accepting or rejecting to be done by you. The simple fact is that if you believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ; then it was God who made you believe it. You know you are a believer because of the Spirit working your heart and mind. For God’s glory, the Spirit is conforming you to the image of Jesus Christ in whom you now boast…Yes, boast in Him!

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

July 26, 2023