The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest

Vol: 36 Issue: 12 - Sunday, September 12, 2004

Special Report: Salvation 101
by Jack Kinsella

I have a good friend who was once a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses, but
who left that cult after having encountered a well-informed Christian who
proved to him that the New World Translation (the Bible used by Jehovah's
Witnesses) had significant differences from other Bible translations.

Unfortunately for my friend, while he left the cult,  he took what he had
learned from it with him.  One of the most difficult concepts for him to
grasp is that of salvation by grace.

"But, Jack, it just CAN'T be that simple," he'll argue, before pointing
out all the verses he learned from the JW's that  'proved' salvation is
limited and dependent upon behavior.  My friend believes in God and Jesus
Christ, and tries hard to live right because of that belief, but he still
can't bring himself to trust Jesus Christ alone for his salvation.

Instead, he trusts to his own good works, in spite of the fact that he
knows (and admits) to sinning every day, just like everybody else does.

We've talked and talked -- for hours at a time -- while he wrestles with
the concept of salvation by grace through faith.  I am sure everybody has
a friend like mine, so I thought it might be good to revisit Salvation
101 -- maybe you've run into some of the same questions.

The Omega Letter is aimed at those who have already grasped the simplicity
of salvation, and generally focuses its attention on the 'strong meat' of
doctrine.

For example, we've examined the nuts-and-bolts answers to hard questions
like, "Why did Jesus have to die?" and "would a loving God send people to
hell?" etc., but not so much with the 'milk issues' that confound the
seekers and confuse the lost.

Many people feel they have fulfilled the second commandment of God, in
loving other people, but to a large degree, they have ignored the first
and most important commandment - to love God with all your heart. We are
created in the Image of God to love God and love one another.

If we choose to ignore God and not love Him, we are rejecting Him, and as
such will not be forced to live with Him in heaven, but will be eternally
separated from Him and His children (those who love Him).

Many churches do good things, and many people do good works in their
church and in their community.  However, without a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, these works are "dead works," often done to glorify
ourselves and gain esteem within the church.

A person cannot have a personal relationship with God apart from Jesus.
There is a gap that exists between God the Father and sinful humanity.

God is completely holy and cannot tolerate the presence of any sin. But we
are all selfish sinners.  To redeem us, He had to become ONE of us.

To do THAT, He had to physically enter sin's 'quarantine zone' (the
earth's atmosphere), conquer sin in THIS world, thereby defeating sin's
universal stranglehold on humanity,  and then, having qualified as an
acceptable Sacrifice, paid the eternal penalty for sin on our behalf.

When Adam sinned, God cursed him, saying, "In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou
taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Genesis 3:19)

God covered the first sin of Adam by clothing his nakedness with dead
animal skins.  Sin, by definition, introduced death into the world. ". . .
without shedding of blood is no remission." (Hebrews 9:22)

Jesus paid the penalty prescribed by Adam's sin, just as every human being
since Adam, but Jesus was WITHOUT sin. He was not under that penalty for
Himself, so He could assume it on our behalf.  Having defeated the cause
of death (sin), He then defeated the penalty of sin (death) by His
Resurrection.

My friend, (and everyone else who ever sinned, even once) have not
defeated sin personally, and remain under sin's penalty of death. "And as
it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"
(Hebrews 9:27)

But death is in two parts.  The physical death, and what the Bible calls
the 'second death' eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire.

And so is the judgement.  The believer's sins were judged at the Cross,
and the penalty for them has already been paid.

For those who trust to their own good works, there is a second judgement
before the Great White Throne, where they will be judged according to ALL
their works, good and bad.

There is no balancing scale. One sin earns eternal separation.

Our personal sin still earns the wages of physical death. We are
spiritually and eternally saved, but the world in which we live remains
under the curse. Sin has its consequences on the things which are in it.

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

Jesus sinless Sacrifice paid our eternal debt -- there is nothing left to
judge but our rewards. Nothing we could ever do could earn it, because it
is a gift, freely offered to all men.

By accepting Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf and committing to follow Him
we are declared righteous by God on the basis of our faith.

Therefore as new creatures, recreated by the Blood of Christ, wearing His
righteousness instead of our own, we are able to come before the throne of
God blameless and cleansed, reestablishing our relationship with God.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2nd Corinthians 5:17)

It has NOTHING to do with religion.  Paul was preaching to the Church at
Galatia, where a heresy had crept in that said Christians had to be
circumcised like Jews in order to prove they belonged to God.

Paul makes it clear that Christians are neither Jews nor Gentiles, but
something entirely new.

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creature." (Galatians 6:15)

My friend's difficulty in trusting Jesus is rooted in his failure to under
stand the 'new creature' for what it is.  The Bible teaches that there are
four spiritual creations.

First, God created the angels.  Then, He created Adam in His Image and in
His Likeness. At Adam's fall, his spiritual state was changed, he became
separated from God, and Adam fathered the spiritual creation known as the
Gentile.

Abraham, through faith, fathered the first of another new spiritual
creation.  Isaac was the first spiritual Jew, the father of Jacob, whose
name was changed to Israel.

Since then, every person is born either a spiritual Jew or a spiritual
Gentile.  The three spiritual creations of God, then, are angels, and then
Jews and Gentiles, created in His Image, with an eternal spirit.

A descendant of Isaac can never become a Gentile.  A Gentile can become a
practicing Jew, but he remains a spiritual Gentile, since his eternal
spirit remains estranged from God in any case.

Jesus introduced a new spiritual creation with His Resurrection.  Those
who trust Jesus are transformed into a totally new spiritual creation,
personally indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and restored to the
fellowship lost by Adam.

"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" (Romans 5:12)

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous." (Romans 5:19)

Having been MADE righteous and restored to fellowship, Christians are
neither Gentile nor Jew.  Nor are they angels, either literally or
figuratively.  The Bible calls them 'saints' -- something entirely unique
in the history of the universe.  Jews and Gentiles are born what they are.
Christians are REBORN into a 'new birth' -- a new spiritual creation of
God.

Our conversion is literal -- we CONVERT into a new thing, like a moth
becoming a butterfly. Just as a Jew can't become a Gentile because he is
of Isaac's race, (and a Gentile can't become a spiritual Jew because he
isn't), a Christian, once reborn, can't revert back to either Jew or
Gentile.  And we never were angels.

Salvation is a permanent transformation from one kind of spiritual
creation to a different kind of spiritual creation.

Why is this so important to a study on basic Salvation 101?

As I said, it is the misunderstanding of the new creature that is a
stumbling-block to my friend.  He sees Christians the way the world does.
Sinners, not saints.

He understands the 'wages of sin' part,  kinda grasps the 'free gift'
part, but not quite, but can't get understand how Christians can still sin
and confidently expect to go to heaven when they die?  Because they DO
sin, even though they try not to.

One cannot sin one's way back into an old creature that has, according to
Scripture, "passed away." (2nd Corinthians 5:17)  Paul says the old
creature is dead.  Only God can raise the dead, not an act of man.  Even a
sinful act.

The Bible says to repent (literally, change your mind), realize your sin
will take you to hell, and that there is nothing you can do about it
except to trust Jesus' promise that by trusting Him for your salvation as
the Lord of your life, you are now a new creation of God.

It's so simple.  So simple, in fact, that there are millions upon millions
who just can't get it.  Paul spoke of being "wise in your own conceits"
(Romans 12:16) not the least of which is the belief that our works
contribute to our salvation.

"But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty." (1st Corinthians 1:27)

Trusting Jesus means exactly that. Jesus did it ALL.  It's Salvation 101.