Back To The Basics

THE SALVATION OF MAN.

Intro:

1. In the 1951 science fiction movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still, space traveler Klaatu, lands his spaceship in Washington, DC. He is hunted down, shot, and imprisoned. But moments before he is finally taken, he warns Helen Benson, about his avenging robot – eight-foot-tall Gort. He warns her that. “If anything happens to him, Gort will wreak revenge on the city. Therefore, she must intercept him and repeat this command: “Klaatu Barada Nikto!” Helen responds, “But he’s a robot. Without you, what could he do?” Klaatu gravely responds, “There’s no limit to what he could do. He could destroy the earth.”

2. That is just science fiction, but the reality is when it comes to the true and living God, there is no limit to what He can do! After man rebelled against Him He could have destroyed the earth, but instead He chose to do something so mindboggling that it stuns the imagination – to Pardon all sins and Impute righteousness to all who would receive it!

3. We now come to the Salvation – first step justification.

Trans: We have looked at The Situation: God’s Perfection; Creation; and Demonstration of grace. The Separation: Standard of Deity; Sin Debt; Satanic Dominion; and Spiritual Death. We looked at God’s Solution: Representation; Incarnation; Substitution; and Satisfaction. Now we come to the Salvation.

I. JUSTIFICATION.

A. Pardon. Just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned! Forgiveness is Subtraction.

Now technically pardon is not the same as justification, but we are doing a simple overview, a back to the basics. But keep in mind everything we look at is Biblically sound.

1. Meaning of forgiveness.

The Greek word means “to send away.” To forgive means to remove the accusations against the sinner, after God has been satisfied concerning his sins, by His own work.

One notes:

The literal meaning of forgiveness is “to dismiss.” “Dismiss from what?” we ask. Evidently it means dismiss from the only record that exists, that is, from the mind of God… God does not forget the fact of sin, but he dismisses it from his mind as sin. As a result of this forgiveness, God does not impute that sin to the sinner. Sin is debt. Sin causes us to be behind in our obligation… He gives us a clean sheet, so that there is no sin counted against us. God does not impute or reckon sin against us. This is a marvel! Would it not be a marvel if you should put your hand in the fire, and it did not burn you? This is the marvel of forgiveness…[And keep in mind] Without forgiveness, the door of hell is inevitably open. Without forgiveness, the doors of heaven are inevitably shut. Forgiveness is the key that shuts the door to everlasting damnation. Forgiveness opens the door to heaven, to everlasting glory, and to fellowship with God.

I bought a cheap, used suit, from eBay, when it arrived it had a big round stain on it! And even after I had it dry cleaned, the stain remained. In fact, I showed it to several of you. Then I decided to have it dry cleaned, but this time told the woman, about the stain and sure enough, she got it out!

When we acknowledge our sin-stain and receive the Lord Jesus as our Savior, He removes the sin-stain from us, sends it away!

2. Measure of forgiveness.

a. It includes All.

Not only all our sins, but the self that produces those sins!

As one noted:

So we see that objectively the blood deals with our sins. The Lord Jesus has borne them on the cross for us as our Substitute and has thereby obtained for us forgiveness… But we must now go a step further in the plan of God to understand how He deals with the sin principle in us. The blood can wash away my sins, but it cannot wash away my “old man.” It needs the cross to crucify me. The blood deals with the sins, but the cross must deal with the sinner… Our sins are dealt with by the blood, but we ourselves are dealt with by the cross. The blood procures our pardon for what we have done; the cross procures our deliverance from what we are.

Our focus for now is on our sins…

(1) It is Biblical. Col. 2:13/Heb. 10:14

13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. Colossians 2:13

How much is all to an omniscient God? Every single one of them!

I read about a legal decision from a case in Pennsylvania, where the word “all” was defined as “All includes everything and excludes nothing.”

Our Lord cried out on the cross, “It is finished”, literally Paid in Full! The Complete Bible Library notes: