Introduction
What does it mean to be saved? I remember when I was living downtown and I was taking the bus to work. A young lady walked up to me and asked me if I was saved. Saved from what? Not from people accosting me at the bus station on the way to work asking me if I was saved! In reality I did assure her of the fact God had saved me and I was going to heaven and thanked her for her concern. But what does the word saved really mean.
Well the Bible word is sode'-zo (G4982) from saos, “safe”. To save, that is, deliver or protect (literally or figuratively): - heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole.[1]
When we speak of this is the Biblical context it usually refers to the state of the person before God spiritually, being safe from the condemnation of sin. This is more than just saying a quickie prayer and holding the preacher's hand. We see there is:
Conviction
John 16:8-11 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: (9) concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; (10) concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; (11) concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (ESV)
When we think of conviction we think of a person standing in a court of law, found guilty and awaiting their sentencing. That is one definition, but their is another.
Convict:: G1651 el-eng'-kho. Of uncertain affinity; to confute, admonish: - convict, convince, tell a fault, rebuke, reprove.[2]
This seems to be a better definition. The Father reserves the judgment for the Son. The job of the Holy Spirit is to bring the world to the Son, just as the servant brought Rebeka to Isaac (remember my post on that a week or so ago). To help us in the way, the Holy Spirit uses conviction to make us realize our need for a Saviour. He convicts us:
1. Of Sin, not of sins, because they do not believe in Me. This is referring to the condemnation awaiting mankind who rejects Jesus’ offer of salvation. God does not condemn us, we condemn ourselves. John 3:17-19 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (19) And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. The Holy Spirit convicts us of the coming condemnation that comes from rejecting Jesus.
2. Of righteousness: We remember how the Jews condemned Jesus for His supposed sinfulness? A friend of publicans and sinners, that he was guilty of blasphemy and sedition, maintained a familiarity with satan, and that he had a devil. When the world will see that I have poured out the Holy Spirit they will be forced to confess that I was just, and was not condemned by my Father when I went out of this world. Peter when he preached at Pentecost: Acts 2:36-37 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. (37) Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
3. Of Judgement: The prince of this world, satan is judged. We remember how he fell from heaven like lighting (Luke 10:18) and the final destination of satan: Revelation 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Conviction on three points: The need for a Saviour, That only Jesus is righteous and can be our Saviour, and Jesus is the righteous judge. We will either face Him one day as our Saviour or our Judge.
Just as there is more than one definition for conviction, there can be more than on response to the conviction brought about by the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
So the response is in one of two ways: godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. One way leads to life, the other leads to death. The person who has a worldly sorrow may be genuine in his sorrow, may be sincere in his sorrow, but there is a missing repentance. This person may have been caught in the act of a sin and have his pride wounded and he is sorry it happened. He may feel sorrowful because he got caught but not for his actions. But there is no true repentance. What is repentance?
Repentance G3341 metanoia From G3340; (subjectively) compunction (for guilt, including reformation); by implication reversal (of decision): - repentance.[3]
God's sorrow occurs when we are not terrified with the fear of punishment, but because we feel we have offended God our most merciful Father. Contrary to this there is another sorrow, that only fears punishment, or when a man is vexed for the loss of some worldly goods. The fruit of the first is repentance, and the fruit of the second is desperation, unless the Lord quickly helps.[4]
This sorrowing over our condition before a Holy God, realizing we are without hope without God, brings us the conviction that we need somebody to save us from our sins. That somebody is Jesus. When we realize that He is the payment for our sins, just as He had said:
Matthew 20:28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
And the author of Hebrews tells us:
Hebrews 9:13-16 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: (14) How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (15) And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. (16) For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
In the Old Testament when a sacrifice was brought before the priest, the person making the sacrifice would place his hands upon the animal identifying himself with the sacrifice.God then looked at the sacrifice, not the sinner. These things were yet just pictures, types of the perfect sacrifice yet to come. They were not perfect, they had to be repeated each year. Sin needs to be paid for, and the price is blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission (Hebrews 9:22). There has to be a price paid in blood.
So it is either Jesus’ perfect sacrifice or we pay the price by eternal separation from God. When we realize just how terrible sin is in the sight of a holy God, the love He showed by giving such a great sacrifice, the cost leads to conviction of the need of a Saviour, the conviction leads to our next topic, confession.
Confession
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart God raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved. For with the heart believeth unto rightousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. -Romans 10:9-10
Confession is not by itself, but it is accompanied by belief. The thought of what we are confessing. It is not just an understanding that Jesus is God, Lord, and creator of the Universe. Even the devils believe that and tremble at the thought of it (see James 2:19) but as the result of a deep conviction based on the terrible price Jesus paid for our sin that we need a Saviour, that we freely make Jesus our Lord and Saviour, repenting of and turning from our sins. Accepting the gift of salvation we believe (to trust, rely on, have faith that He will do as He promised). We agree with the Father that Jesus is Saviour and Lord.
The thought that I am trying to get across here is that this is not something that you come across easily. I remember when God saved me. I was a baptized church member who missed the point completely. It was November and I promised God that next year I would start tithing and going on visitation because I was just too busy and needed the money this year to get caught up. But starting next year I would begin being faithful (I am sure He was most impressed and profoundly grateful).
Well on December 28th, 1989 I tithed for the first time, and the next Thursday I showed up for soul-winning visitation. I went out with the bus director and we visited this nice lady and Mark went over the plan of salvation and the third time through I realized that I had never been saved.
I went home that night and I had no peace. I knew if I died I would bust hell wide open. The devil started working on me, "you can't tell them now, you have been baptized. You have joined the church. They would never accept you now." But by Saturday I could not take it anymore and did not care what anybody thought, I needed to be saved. I went to church and spoke with my friend and bus director and on January 6th, 1990 there was a new name written down in glory, and it was mine!
Am I saying we all have to have an experience like mine? No, I am saying that the Holy Spirit brought me to the point of conviction, which caused me to make the decision, when I believed and was born again.
Nobody was born a Christian, nobody always followed God, everybody has to be born again, saved. Everybody has to make a decision, a confession. And no decision is a decision not to follow Jesus. And this decision, this confession, leads to a conversion.
Conversion
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
When we see the high price God paid for our sin, we are convicted by the Holy Spirit of the need for a Saviour. The conviction leads us to the confession that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour. The confession leads us to our next thought, that of the conversion.
Conversion: change in character, form, or function. Spiritual change from sinfulness to righteousness.[5]
2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The spiritual change happens at the conversion is when we accept the great gift from God all of our sins are put onto Jesus and attributed to Him and His work on the cross, and He by grace gives us His righteousness. It does not stop there though, and this spiritual change shows up in our day to day lives.
There is a Spiritual change that shows in our lives, thoughts and actions. I remember reading a story about a lady speaking with Charles Spurgeon about being a Christian. She said she said she could never be a Christian because she enjoyed playing card games, the occasional sherry, and going to the theater and could never give them up to which Charles replied “I play all the cards I want to, drink all I want to, and go to the theater as much as I want to.”
“Really!” the lady replied. “Yes, but I do not want to!” said the great preacher. To me that is a real sign of conversion, of the changed life: God changes our “wanter.”
I remember when God saved me. That night I was at home, got up and stubbed my little toe on a table. Instantly the old nature showed up in me as I started with a stream of “blankety-blanks” (fill in the blanks) and almost immediately I pulled up and stopped like I had been slapped with this thought: “Is this why I saved you?” I immediately repented and my first memory verse became 2 Timothy 2:16 (But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.)
The conversion comes right away, but growth comes over time. We are given the righteousness of Jesus and the fruit of that will show in our lives as we grow and live the life. We walk the walk, when we are converted we have a conversation, a walk, a new way of life.
As the old saying goes “the proof is in the pudding” and if we do not walk after righteousness, if we live in willful and unrepentant sin, then there is a consiquence:
Hebrews 12:5-8 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: (6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. (7) If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? (8) But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
If we live in willful rebellion and God does not intervene, does not chastise, then the whole process comes under question and we need to reexamine our salvation, because then we are bastards (illegitimate children) and not really sons of God.
Cost
As continue looking at the topic of salvation, the next thing we want to look at the high cost of salvation.
1 Peter 1:18-19 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, (19) but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
The high cost was the precious blood of Jesus. As we think on this thought there are two more verses I want to introduce:
1 Corinthians 5:7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Exodus 12:5-7,13 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, (6) and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. (7) "Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it...The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
Jesus is our Passover Lamb sacrificed for us, just as when the death angel passed over the children of Israel when he saw the blood of the lamb, God will not see our sin and our guilt but the blood of the sacrifice. When an Israelite brought a sacrifice to the temple, he would press his hands onto the head of the lamb, goat, bullock or whatever animal he was bringing as a substitute to the priest and they would press their hands onto the head of the animal as the priest killed the animal identifying themselves with the sacrifice. We must identify ourselves with Jesus if we are to be saved by Him. We are not saved because or parents are saved, or because we go to church, or because it is our rights as an American. We must be saved, we must make the decision to identify ourselves with Jesus.
Secondly, we notice that just as Israel could not just offer any old animal for a sacrifice. I remember hearing a story about how a cow birthed two calves at the same time, so he said to his wife “Martha, we will give one of the calves to the Lord.” Over the course of the next few weeks one of the calves got sick and died. The farmer came to his wife and said “Martha, the Lord’s calf just died.” The ten year old three legged, one eyed ram is not qualified to be a sacrifice. Only the best will do. It is a picture of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that He made on the cross at Cavalry. The price was no less than the blood of the Son of God.
Hebrews 9:13-14 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, (14) how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Only Jesus’ blood will cleanse us from our sin, sanctify and purify us before the God of Heaven. The Blood of no animal, no work we can do, nothing else will satisfy God. God in His love not only demanded a perfect sacrifice for sin but provided it for us. As we look at the price willingly paid in love for us hopefully this will move us toward the next thought in salvation: conviction.
Conclusion
As we think on the cost of salvation, the price Jesus paid, it should convict our hearts if we are tender to the leading of the Holy Spirit. He will lead us to conviction (the need of the Saviour), the confession. The yielding in our minds and hearts to Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords. To make a conscience and deliberate decision to accept Jesus both Saviour and Lord. We do not make Him Saviour. He is the Saviour. We do not make Him Lord. He is Lord! We have to make the decision to follow Him as Saviour and Lord. If we are willing then God does the work of conversion. To save us and sanctify us (saving is immediate and He sanctifies us as we live for Him, allowing Him to correct us as we grow in the Word and willingly follow Him.
The choice is ours. He is Lord of all or not Lord at all. What will you decide today?
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[1] Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, E-Sword electronic database.
[2] Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, E-Sword
[3] Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, E-Sword
[4]Geneva Bible Commentary, E-Sword
[5] conversion. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved October 27, 2011, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/conversion
