The Gospel



BIBLE DOCTRINE III

LECTURE 8

SOTERIOLOGY:

THE ESSENTIALS OF SALVATION

Rom 10:9-17

9a That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,

9b and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,

9c thou shalt be saved.

10a For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;

10b and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that

call upon him.

13a For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord

13b shall be saved.

14a How then shall they call on him

14b in whom they have not believed?

14c and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

14d and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15a And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

15b as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of

good things!

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

17a So then faith cometh by hearing,

17b and hearing by the word of God.

God’s plan of salvation

God’s plan is for His Son’s churches to send men (and their families) to preach the gospel to the lost so that the lost can hear the truth of the gospel, believe it, and then call on Jesus Christ for salvation.

13a For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord

13b shall be saved.

14a How then shall they call on him

14b in whom they have not believed?

14c and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

14d and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15a And how shall they preach, except they be sent?

17a So then faith cometh by hearing,

17b and hearing by the word of God.

The Gospel

15b as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings

of good things!

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

The preaching the ‘gospel’ is the bringing of glad tidings of good things. The gospel is the ‘good news’.

There is a reason why He did this: because we are sinners and condemned to Hell; good news – you have hope!

The lost must ‘obey the gospel’; they must do what it says to do; but, what is that?....

What is the gospel?

2 Tim 1:10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

The gospel is all about a Saviour; gospel means ‘good news’; you can be saved!

1 Cor 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

One is ‘saved’ by this ‘gospel’. This good news involves believing that ‘Christ died for our sins’ (according to the Bible); and that ‘He was buried’; and that ‘He rose again the third day’ (according to the Bible). There are a lot of truths implicit in these 3 components: Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the promised One, the Son of God, God Almighty; He came in the flesh, suffered greatly, shedding His blood, and was totally sinless, innocent; and He did indeed die, so much so that His physical body was buried; He conquered death and rose again from the grave and is alive forever more! He is the Saviour…the only Saviour of the world. One’s only hope of salvation.

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

This ‘gospel’ is the ‘power of God unto salvation’! But, it needs to be ‘believed’.

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

It is the ‘gospel of your salvation’. It needs to be preached, heard, and believed.

Thus, the ‘gospel’ is the good news that anyone can be saved from Hell by believing that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, God Almighty, came in the flesh and suffered, bled, and died for your sins, and was buried, and on the 3rd day rose from the grave and is alive forever more!

Believe in your heart

9b and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, …

10a For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;

17a Faith cometh by hearing…

17b and hearing by the word of God.

Simply hearing the truth the word of God doesn’t automatically save you. There needs to be ‘faith’, ‘belief’. ‘Hearing’ is not speaking of the audible sound coming into one’s ear system, but rather one ‘understanding’ it.

It’s more than just ‘understanding’ that there is a God, or ‘believing in God’… or ‘believing in Jesus’. The devils believe, and tremble!

It is believing what the Bible says about Jesus Christ; and, specifically here, that He died (for your sin debt) and God raised Him up from the dead, and He is alive!

Acts 16:29-32 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

Confession & Calling

9a That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,…

10b and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

‘Confession’ involves ‘admitting’ something to be true. Verse 11 seems to indicate that this confessing is done publickly. Though, simply announcing to a church body that you believe the truths about Jesus Christ and salvation doesn’t make you saved; there must be ‘faith’. The key teaching, I believe, is that one must not be ‘ashamed’ of Jesus Christ and becoming a Christian; if they are ashamed, then I would presume they didn’t just get saved. Also, it is very reasonable for a person to get saved in their own bedroom, all alone, and not have any public confession. The confession may simply be dealing with you, a lost sinner condemned to Hell, confessing to the Holy God of the Universe that you are a sinner deserving of Hell, and that only Jesus Christ can save you from this awful Hell.

This confession also involves ‘repentance’; a total change of heart; if authentic, it will produce fruit…that is, the turning away from real live sins in your life; thus, it is not just a general ‘change of heart’. There needs to be specific sins which one repents of. One must specifically confess that they have broken a specific law of God. I do not believe, however, that one must confess every sin, and officially stop every sin (Lordship Salvation) in order to be saved.

This confession is probably in conjunction (or the same) with the ‘calling on the name of the Lord’.

It is only Jesus Christ that can save one from Hell; there is no other…

Ac 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Matt 7:13-14 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

This ‘calling on the name of the Lord’, i.e. Jesus Christ, I believe is similar to one drowning in a deep lake and just before going under they scream out at the top of their lungs for the ‘lifeguard’ to ‘save’ them. It is a desperate, no-one else can do it, intense, with all one’s heart, calling. It is not a casual ‘dear Jesus please save me, amen…’

It’s not the volume of the call that saves, but the intensity of the heart’s call for salvation that saves.

Saved

9c Thou shalt be saved.

‘Thou’; is it only ‘the elect’? is it only ‘Americans’? It is ‘whosoever’!

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Rev 22:17c …And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

2 Peter 3:9c …not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

‘Shalt’; a declaration of truth…an undeniable fact…an act that occurs instantly…and is final. ‘Once saved, always saved’! The eternal security of the believer! A ‘know-so salvation’!

1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

‘Saved’; well….saved from what? Saved from their ‘sins’? Saved from having an unsatisfying life? No.

Thou shalt be saved from…..Hell ! Eternal punishment in Hellfire !

Matt 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Rom 6:23a For the wages of sin is death;…

Rv 20:14,15 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire . This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire .

Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Rom 5:9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

1 Thess 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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