What is a myth? A story about someone or something that some claim to be true but is usually a fable. In Minnesota we have the stories of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox.
There is the belief in Poland that if you sit on a cold stone surface you will get sick and in America, many believe that if you place unpeeled onions in bowls around your house, you won’t get the flu because it will absorb the flu virus. Just don’t eat the onions. Of course there is no medical basis for either of these legends.
This morning we’re going to look at several beliefs about salvation that are also myths and have no basis in Scripture. As we look at Ephesians 2:8-9 we discover that we believe several myths about Salvation passed from generation to generation. Let’s sort some of these myths out and find the truth!
The first myth is the belief that you are too sinful to be saved.
First of all the Scripture makes it clear that ALL of us sin. Rom. 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:10 “None are righteous no not one…” I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “all” I assume it means “everybody” and not just those who are more sinful than others. And when I read the word “none” I assume it means that not a single person who has ever lived. There are no qualifiers like “except for…” The Bible makes it clear that there isn’t a single person who has ever lived who has been without sin except for Jesus Christ.
That’s good and well, but we still look at some sins as more sinful: adultery, robbery, abuse, blasphemy, betrayal, murder…we have a hard time swallowing the thought that any who delve into those sins could be saved. Or if they did, they would have to do a lot of good deeds to make up for it. Those sins are viewed as too evil to be forgiven. Is that true?
Well, let’s look at a few examples…
What about those who cheat on their spouses and commit adultery? There was a prostitute in Jericho by the name of Rahab. How many times do you think she committed adultery? And yet she ended up in the opening pages of the New Testament as one of those who are in the line leading to Jesus Christ – a great hero! Her great great grandson became King David. And David committed a horrible sin by committing adultery against one of his soldiers by sleeping with his wife while Uriah was in battle. And yet David repented and was forgiven!
Abraham, the father of faith betrayed his wife Sarah by letting her be married to the Pharaoh in order to save his own skin. And yet Scripture says that he was saved by faith.
Blasphemy? Paul once said: “I was once a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and a violent man.” 1 Tim. 1:13.
Certainly murderers are too sinful to be saved! And yet we find King David who arranged to have Uriah sent into the front lines to be killed to cover over his sin of adultery with Uriah’s wife. The Apostle Paul had Christians not only beaten and imprisoned, but Scripture says that he sent many to their deaths.
There was the criminal nailed on the cross next to Jesus. “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Finally, those who have betrayed the Lord by denying him – by cursing him can turn to the betrayal of Peter who denied he even knew Jesus at the very moment Jesus was at his trial. And yet, after the resurrection, Jesus restored Peter and told him that he loved him.
Truly, no one is too sinful to be saved if you study the Scriptures closely or nobody would be saved! There are consequences every time for our sins. People get hurt – we get hurt – suffering results. As Paul wrote in Romans 6:23 “The wages of sin is death.” Every sin separates us from God – not just the big ones but EACH one. And yet, when we confess and turn them over to Christ, we can know that they were lifted from our shoulders and the guilt laid on the shoulders of Christ on the cross. EVERY sin. Praise God!
A second myth concerning salvation is the belief that you haven’t done enough to be worthy of salvation.
This is the understanding that what Jesus did on the cross helped to cover my original sin that I was born with. But then it is on my shoulders to live a good life that is worthy of God so that he will accept me. It’s the belief that I need to earn the love of God – that he only loves good boys and good girls.
Read again with me Ephesians 2:8 Salvation “is not from yourselves – it is the gift of God.” Did you hear that? NONE of your salvation is on your shoulders. And yet it’s almost ingrained in us to believe that at least part of it IS on our own shoulders.
Parents tell their children in the weeks leading up to Christmas – you better be good or Santa won’t bring you any presents. He’s checking his list to see if you’re naughty or nice. And if you’re not good, no presents for you. That’s a typical attitude that we have about the gift of salvation. If we’re not nice, there won’t be any present when we die. So we better be extra kind and nice and good Christians to make sure we get our gift.
Again, what does the Bible say? “this is NOT of yourselves.” If any one of us were responsible for even 1% of our salvation, of our heavenly inheritance, what would that say about the cross of Jesus Christ? What does it say of the great sacrifice Jesus made by dying on the cross? It says that what he did wasn’t quite enough. The cross isn’t enough! God does his part and he expects us to do ours.
When we lived in the Czech Republic I used to have a Czech car – a Skoda. And I also had a friend, Mirek, in our congregation who was an auto mechanic. Well, he would often volunteer to help me out when I needed repair or maintenance on my car. And I would ask him how much afterwards and he would always say nothing. Are you sure? “Nothing…later.” Well then the time came for me to return to the States for furlough and here comes Mirek with a page or two of music albums that he was interested in having that could only be found in the US. At first I thought nothing of it – I would look for them and he would pay me back later. And then I began to realize that he expected that “now” was payback time. It was the “later” that he was talking about. And I had to “pay the piper.”
Many people view salvation in the same way. God promises you eternal life and forgiveness, but you better “pay the piper” when he calls or you will lose it all. But salvation is truly FREE. That means no strings attached: no extra small print, no payment of fees later, no extra hours put in. Free is truly free which is hard to receive because in our society nothing is for free – there is always a payment to be made. It seems too good to be true and that is the offense of the Gospel – a free gift!
A third myth about salvation is the belief that you must feel a certain way to be saved.
This is the belief that you need to have a certain experience so that you have in your heart that feeling of relief, of peace, of satisfaction. And those that don’t have that feeling simply haven’t been saved. They are holding something back. Maybe that is the case. Maybe a lack of peace and joy indicates that their trust in God is only partial.
But our salvation isn’t triggered by feelings but by the FACTS of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. “It is the gift of God” and how you feel about that gift at any given moment is not what is crucial but what is crucial is that you take and receive that gift.
Heb. 10:19 "we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus." Our approach to God should be bold and without guilt or fear because we cannot approach him on our merits or value but on HIS own merits and value. "Whether you have had a good day or a bad day…, your basis of approach is always the same - the blood of Christ. God's acceptance of that blood is the ground upon which you may enter, and there is no other." (Nee) It’s not subjective or changeable but a solid real thing that we can point to and say, “it is righteous and sprinkled on me.” Fear is gone!
Our feelings change at a whim. You can have a bad day and suddenly everything looks black, depressing, discouraging. Sometimes our bodies cause our feelings to plummet and our faith has very little to do with it. Does that mean you are lost? Absolutely not!
Many years ago Bill Bright came up with the wonderful illustration of a train to understand this. The engine is the facts of all that God has done for you dying on the cross, rising from the dead. His blood was holy and he died for all the sins that were ever committed in the world including yours. The next car in the train is your faith. You receive the facts – all that Jesus did for you as a gift and he pulls you along by those facts. Now the caboose represents your feelings. These are going to usually be joy, peace, happiness, but not always. In fact, sometimes you will be sad, discouraged, fearful, or angry. Does that mean that the caboose starts leading the train and going backwards? Absolutely not! Instead, we take those feelings and we put our eyes back on the engine of the facts, of who God is and what he has done. And our wayward emotions are not allowed to lead the way.
Don’t believe the lie that your emotions tell you that you’re too sad, fearful, or discouraged to be saved. As long as you have surrendered your life to God as your Lord and Savior, don’t give your emotions so much credence. Your emotions don’t determine your salvation. They CAN determine that you need healing and encouragement and a closer walk with God. They CAN determine that you need help in some area but that’s another thing altogether.
But our faith and hope rests in the promise of God which is a fact and reliable and does not drift up and down like emotions. That’s rock solid!
A final myth about salvation is the belief that you only need knowledge and/or words to be saved.
Confirmation students learn their lessons over two years. They fill their mind with catechism and Bible history. They learn to say the right things at the confirmation service. But that is no guarantee that they are saved. Words and head knowledge do not save.
For one thing – what we say isn’t always what we believe in our heart. After all, it says in Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Now notice that it is important to use your words. There is the outward confession – “I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord!” But that doesn’t bring salvation. There MUST be the belief in your heart. If the words are not coming from the heart, there is not real faith.
Knowledge doesn’t equal faith and trust. I can memorize the entire Bible but that doesn’t mean that I trust in the God of the bible.
James is very strong about this in 2:14 “What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” Of course not! Why? Because it’s fake! Trust in God and faith in God that is merely words isn’t going to result in a changed lifestyle. But when a man has given his life to the Lord and walks in faith, he is going to live differently. He’s not going to live for himself and his own desires and needs. He’s going to seek to obey God. That is a fruit of salvation!
Our salvation is not based on knowledge or confession
Nor is it based on our feelings.
It’s not based on our good deeds.
And it’s not limited by our sins.
What do all of these statements have in common? The need to look to Jesus Christ ALONE for our salvation. We look nowhere else for any security and connection to God but to the blood of Christ shed for us on the cross. And then we can stand before God in boldness and peace and joy and serve him without fear. For we stand covered in his righteousness and not our own!
