Beth-El Baptist Church

11/20/2011

Greg Tomlinson


What is salvation?


The idea of salvation can be difficult for many people. Most don't think they actually need saving and those who do think they have to pay a huge sum of money or activities.


  1. Why would I need to be saved?

Genesis 1:26-27 Jeremiah 17:9

Romans 5:10-14 1 Corinthians 2:14


Having been created in the “image and likeness of God”, man has been designed to function as God would function. Yet man sinned against God and has continually defiled the name and character of God whom he is expected to represent. As a result of having sinned against God, having maligned His name and character, man has become the enemy of God. In our natural fallen state, man could care less about God and the things of God as a result we are permanently and irrevocably separated from God. There is no hope of reconciling our relationship with God.


  1. What do I need to be saved from?

John 3:36 Romans 1:18-19; 5:12-19

Revelation 20:12-15


To put it bluntly, man needs to be saved from the outpouring of the wrath of God upon them. Since man sinned against God and God is a just and proper judge of sin, He must condemn sin to the fullest extent of the law – eternal punishment away from His perfect presence. We need to be saved from the eternal “lake of fire” which is a place of eternal torment.


  1. What do I have to do to be saved?

Acts 16:30-31 Romans 8:1-3

Acts 4:12 John 10:7-11; 14:6

1 Corinthians 15:1-4


The only possible way to escape the eternal and just judgment of God is to believe on the work and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing in the work of Jesus on our behalf on the cross is all that is necessary to be saved.


  1. What does it mean to believe?

Acts 4:12 John 14:6

Romans 4:1-5; 10:9-11 Isaiah 64:6

Luke 18:13


To believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ is essentially to trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ for salvation and ONLY the person and work of Jesus Christ. Any work we try to rely on in order to be saved from the wrath of God destroys the work of faith and grace that is found at the cross. With our efforts to somehow “assist” in Christ's work of grace changes the salvation from a work of grace to a debut incurred by us to God. In other words, if I am capable of supplying any merit towards salvation


  1. What is the cost of salvation?

John 3:16 1 Peter 1:18-19

Exodus 12:5 John 10:15-18; 10:27-30


Salvation cost man nothing because there is nothing that he can offer in exchange for his soul. It cost God, the one to whom all of us are indebted, the blood of His one and only Son. But the life of Jesus was not taken from Him. He was not an unwilling sacrifice because He willingly offered up His own life in order that the price for our iniquity might be paid and that we might escape the eternal condemnation in the eternal lake of fire (hell).