Salvation, part 2

Salvation From

When the Bible speaks of salvation it is describing the transition we go through from need to fulfillment, from problem to solution. An illustration in see in Deuteronomy 26:5-9 where we have both aspects—the picture of salvation from Egypt and heading for the Promised Land.

Before we can discuss salvation, we have to realize that we need to be saved from something. It can be an external threat, either physical or spiritual. God saves us from all sorts of things:

• Natural catastrophes
  
• National catastrophes
  
• From energies or enemies
  
• From being defeated by enemies
  
• From the waves that are about to swamp the boat in Matthew 8:25
  
• Saved from disease and physical defects—Mark 5:28, 34
  
• Songs of deliverance in the Psalms which attribute salvation to God (Ps. 18; 30; 31; 34; 46; 91).
  

Salvation from Spiritual dangers

• From Satan(Mk 3:23–27; Lk 8:36).
  
• From the wrath of God(Rom 5:9–10) Rom 2:5; 1 Thess 2:16;
  
• From sin Mt 1:21 Lk 7:48, 50 from the power of sin (Rom 6:12–14) and from the practice of sin as a way of life (1 Jn 3:9–10; 5:18).
  
• From demonic possession and the dominion of Satan
  

Salvation to:

• Liberation
  
  • The exodus Exodus 20:2
    
  • Jesus came to set at liberty the oppressed Luke 4:18
    
  • Paul—Christ has set us free Galatians 5:1, 13-14
    
• To health and wholeness
  
  • Soteria, the common word for salvation "carries connotations of health, wholeness and soundness."
    
  • Mark 2:17 shows Jesus as a "physician."
    
  • Part of Jesus' ministry was to make people well
    
  • Physical and spiritual healing are often linked together.
    
  • Healing is done to demonstrate the saving power of Jesus and to give a clue as to what salvation is about.
    
• Salvation is shown as shalom, or peace primarily in the prophetic literature.
  
  • A harmonious community of God—Isaiah 2:2-4; Micah 4:1-4; Zechariah 2:6-12.
    

Salvation In

Another aspect of our salvation is union with Christ.

• 2 Corinthians 5:17—"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature."
  
• Ephesians 2:21-22 speaks of Jesus as the cornerstone and foundation of our faith, "in whom the whole structure is joined together … in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Colossians 2:7; 1 Peter 2:4-5)
  
• The image of husband and wife (Ephesians 5:31-32; Revelation 19:7)
  
• Vine and branches (John 15:1-10; Colossians 2:6-7)
  
• The relationship of the head and the body (1 Corinthians 6:15, 19; Ephesians 1:22-23)
  
• Not only are we in Christ but Christ is in the saved person (Galatians 2:20; John 14:20; Ephesians 3:17; 1 John 4:16).
  

 

The Benefits of Salvation

• New Situation—salvation seen as an objective change.
  
  • One's legal status has changed
    
  • One has acquired new rights and responsibilities
    
  • Redemption—the picture of the marketplace where a family member is set free from slavery by a friend or family member who pays the ransom or buys them out of slavery.
    
    • Redemption signifies a transaction too place where someone or something was exchanged to complete the transaction
      
      • Yahweh was the redeemer of Israel in the Old Testament
        
      • The ministry of Jesus is a picture of his sacrificial death to pay the price for our sin.
        
      • Luke uses redemption as a general term for salvation (Luke 1:68; 2:38; 21:28; 24:21).
        
      • Paul—Romans 3:24; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 1:14; Galatians 4:5. That redemption was the blood of Christ which represented the divine life
        
      • Peter and Hebrews—1 Peter 1:18-19; Hebrews 9:12-15
        
      • Bought with a price—1 Corinthians 6:20
        
  • Justification—an image from the law courts
    
    • To be justified is to be declared innocent by the presiding judge
      
    • Isaiah 43:25
      
    • We are also moving into a new situation which is like the criminal who has been declared "not guilty."
      
    • We are declared not guilty not on the basis of our own merits or success, but rather due to our standing "in Christ." Romans 8:1; 3:21-31; Galatians 3:11; Ephesians 2:8-9
      
    • Dependent on the shed blood of Christ Romans 4:25; 5:8-9
      
    • We who are in Christ Jesus are formally pardoned
      
  • Adopted
    
    • Adoption is linked to the work of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:15)
      
    • The Saved are members of God's kingdom and God family at the same time.
      
    • Not a child of God by nature, but by adoption
      
    • Emphasis on the graciousness of God
      
    • We now enjoy all the blessings of the legal status as a child of God—Romans 8;17; Ephesians 1:13-14)
      
  • Reconciliation—from the realm of personal relationships
    
    • Assumption of previous estrangement that has been overcome or healed
      
    • All people are by nature enemies of God (Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21)
      
    • God is alienated because of his righteous anger (Romans 1:18)
      
    • The death of Christ overcomes sin and allows us to avoid the divine wrath (2 Corinthians 5:19; Ephesians 2:6)
      
    • We may now be called the "friend of God" (James 2:23)
      
• New self: salvation as inner change
  
  • When we are in Christ we undergo inner renewal (2 Corinthians 5:17)
    
  • This is a subjective as well as an objective condition
    
  • "Rebirth" (John 3:3-7; 1 Peter 1:23)
    
  • David recognized this need for inner renewal (Psalm 51:10)
    
  • Prophets visualized a time of national renewal and spiritual cleansing (Ezekiel 36:25-28)
    
    • The covenant of God would be written on the hearts of the people rather than on tables of stone (Jeremiah 31:31)
      
    • Baptism is a sign of rebirth (Romans 6)
      
  • Jesus' resurrection signals the beginning of the new order in which believers share
    
  • Designates a new power and a new orientation
    
    
  • "To be born anew means to join in the new humanity of the Second Adam, to be made more Christlike through the renewal of one's inner nature by the Holy Spirit (Jn 1:13; Tit 3:5)."
    
• New Steps: Salvation as Behavioral Change
  
  • Christians are expected to live differently (Galatians 5:25;
    
  • James goes even further and tells us that "works" are an evidence of salvation (James 2:24).
    
  • Paul--"Salvation is received in faith but expressed in good works (2 Timothy 2:21-22)
    
  • Moral and spiritual implications: 1 John 2:6; 3:9.
    
  • Walking according to the Spirit
    

The Agent of Salvation

• Humans incapable of bringing about their legal standing before God.
  
• Humans cannot save themselves
  
• Salvation has to come from God alone
  
• Jesus is called Savior 16 times in the NT while God is referred to as Savior eight times.
  
• Jesus' name means Yahweh is salvation and in Isaiah he is called Emmanuel—"God with us."
  
• Jesus' ministry demonstrates this salvation role
  
• Peter said, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).
  

 

The Scope of Salvation—who or what can be saved?

• Anyone who responds to the preaching of the Gospel
  
  • Faith
    
  • Confession of Christ as Savior
    
  • Repentance
    
  • Baptism
    
• Salvation is available to all races and classes—Acts 2:38; Galatians 3:28; Titus 2:11
  
• Not merely rescuing people out of a doomed world
  
• A transformation of the whole cultural and cosmic created order
  
• Principalities and powers (in the spiritual realm) have been reconciled through Christ
  
• The created order longs for the final exodus event (Romans 8:19-29)
  

 

The Time of Salvation

• Past, present, and future
  
• An ongoing process—"being saved" see Acts 2:47; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15.
  
• Not to be neglected (Hebrews 2:3; actually the entire book of Hebrews)
  
• To be held fast (1 Corinthians 15:2)
  
• "Worked out" (Philippians 2:12)
  
• Full meaning known only on the last day when the renewal process is complete
  
  • New Jerusalem, new heavens and earth (Isaiah 65:17-25; 2 Peter 3:13)
    
  • Believers spared from the wrath of God (1 Thessalonians 5:8-9)
    
• The eternal life does not begin when we die or when Christ returns, but rather the moment we become believers (John 3:16-19; 5:25; 11:25-26; 14:18-20; 17:24-26)
  
• The inheritance is guaranteed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives (1Peter 1:4-5; Ephesians 1:13-14)
  

 

The Economy of Salvation

• Salvation is a significant part of God's plan or oikonomia to unite all things to Christ (Ephesians 1:10; 3:9; 1 Peter 1:20; Matthew 25:34)
  
• Salvation is the work of the Trinity
  
  • The will of the Father
    
  • The sending of the Son
    
  • The application of salvation to believers by the Holy Spirit
    
• Salvation is totally unmerited—"For by grace you have been saved. . . " (Ephesians 2:8)
  

 

Summary

• Three-dimensional salvation
  
  • A new situation—the truth of Christ in our lives
    
  • New hope
    
  • New way of life—the way of righteousness defined by Jesus
    
• Salvation is
  
  • Past fact
    
  • Present experience
    
  • Future hope
    
    

All the information in this article came from Ryken, Leland, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. electronic ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000, c1998. P. 754

 

Rosie O'Donnell on track

Rosie O'Donnell is not one of my favorite people. I won't waste your time telling you how offensive I find this woman. But today on GMA she shared some wisdom that astounded me primarily because of the source. Rosie said that in raising her four children she does not allow them to watch television or play with computers. I wanted to shout hurray for someone who shows some sense in these matters.

Every educator knows the potential of the aforementioned tools, but we know that in many homes, far too many homes, children are allowed to watch television with absolutely no controls or restrictions. Television is used for babysitting so that the adults can go about their business without worrying about them. Just watch daytime television and then nighttime television and you can see that children are being exposed to foul language, immoral behavior, and disgusting ideas presented on talk shows.

One of the great problems parents face is how their children use computers. Access to the internet allows them to go places that no one should go and get onto chat rooms where no one should be and see and do things that are horrendous. Many of the games available for computers are designed to show a person how to repeatedly kill and conduct themselves in violent behavior. Thus children are being trained to kill. No wonder we are having so many assaults in our school system from children. They have been in training for years and now they can see if what they did in cyberworld can be done in the real world.

It was a sad moment when I felt I had to outlaw computers in the classroom. I would have been extremely glad to have a computer when I went to college. I had professors that were loaded with information and I was not able to get down all the information. I dreamed of a school where students could do exactly that. But it didn't take me long to see that the students were playing games and using IM to communicate with each other in class.

The straw that broke the camel's back came when I was lecturing on the death of Jesus. Girls with computers on the far sides of the room were having a giggly good time while I am talking about death. I even reprimanded them, but they continued on. I knew that others were playing games. You could tell that by the glazed look they had as they stared at the computer screen totally oblivious to the class. At that point I said I would not allow computers in the classroom.

So thanks, Rosie. You have invoked some wisdom that is badly needed. I pray that people will listen and unplug their televisions and introduce their children to books and play outdoors.

Book Review—Joel Edwards, An Agenda for Change, 2008

Book Review—Joel Edwards, An Agenda for Change, A Global Call for Spiritual and Social Transformation, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008.

An Agenda for Change, by Joel Edwards, could be summed up with the statement, "It's all in the presentation. Early in the book he makes it clear that no one is really listening to evangelicals because of an attitude of superiority. If we want people to listen, we must change the way we deliver the message. We live in a world that celebrates differences. We have to demonstrate that what we have is better.

Edwards discusses the history of the early church in that it was in the midst of a pagan society, hated and persecuted. Why did the early church grow? Because it was sold on Jesus and the people of the early church displayed a different lifestyle that attracted others. It was not a matter of great evangelistic crusades that won the early world to Christ, but the lifestyle and the passion of the believers.

The pluralistic, anti-Christian society we face today as Christians is similar to what the early church faced for the first 300 years. The church was stronger and more vibrant before it became a "legal religion" in the Roman Empire. The challenge of a society that was basically against it gave the church more zeal and power than it would have afterwards. Today we see a similar circumstance with the church in China. Christians suffer persecution in China. But the church continues to grow and is around 10% of the total population.

Western Christianity is franchised by the government. Western Christians have been spoiled by the privileges granted by the government. The church does not have to pay property taxes as long as it remains "non-profit." The church receives millions of dollars each year that go untaxed as well as owning vast amount of property that are not on the tax rolls.

Another major part of Edwards books deals with who we consider Jesus to be. Christians have to recognize that Jesus is Lord of all before they can expect anyone else to recognize him as Lord of anything. Contrast the average Christian's attitude toward Jesus with the Muslim position on Allah.

Today the value of Christians in society will not be what they say about Jesus, but rather how they are envisioned in doing acts of kindness that serve everyone indiscriminately. We need to offer the message of Jesus in humility and respect toward others. Religion bashing is not an exercise encouraged by the New Testament.

If we speak for Jesus, then we need to speak to the issues Jesus addressed:

• Corruption in the religious world
  
• The mistreatment of children, especially infants
  
• The need to be servant leaders
  
• Jesus was a historical personality sent by God in a divine fashion—virgin birth
  
• Unique in forgiveness
  
• Concerned about the widow, orphan, and sinner
  
• Teaching, preaching, and discipling
  
• Performing of healings and exorcisms
  

In the evangelical world we have two approaches to revelation

• Strange movements of the Spirit, especially as seen in the extreme in some areas of the Pentecostal movement. Edwards says miracles carry a lot of baggage with them, but we still need them (37).
  
• Evangelicals on the theological right who are unwilling to seriously pray even for healing.
  

Miracles for the most part are downplayed by most evangelicals. It is a response to our western culture that refuses to recognize the place of the supernatural. Africans and Asians find it much easier to accept miracles because they are much closer to the supernatural. Western culture believes that we live in a physical world and when we die, if there is a life after death we go to some distant place called heaven to be with God. The Western church is not growing in spite of what we see in the Mega churches. For every mega church there are a dozen tiny churches someplace in America that are dying. The percentage of church goers has remained the same for the past 100 years.

Where the church is growing most rapidly is in Africa, South America, and Asia, and in all of these cases numerous miracles are being reported. Healing and miracles are a significant part of the ministry. Edwards says:

"The plain truth is that Christians who deny the place of miracles may wake up to find out that we are out of step with a contemporary culture growing weary with 'reason', which changes nothing and no one." (39)

The need is for dialogue—conversation at close range. We need to allow for our personal spaces to be shared. The challenge today is to get involved in the conversation. Do we have something worth adding to the conversation? We need to tell people what they need to hear, not just what they want. But even that must be done with courtesy and respect for the dignity of the person to whom we are speaking.

The need to biblicize the church. Not more study notes, but rather

• Inspiring a love for the Bible
  
• Identifying its purpose and power to deal with the uncertainties of our culture
  
• Allow evangelicals to engage people in conversation
  

The need for a thought-through church—

• one that recognizes that there are people with superior experiences in the congregation to that of the minister. Preachers should not wander into areas of expertise about which they know nothing. It is a credibility issue.
  
• Raising the bar on all moral issues, including integrity in business and personal lives. Unfortunately the church is no longer seen as credible in the moral world.
  
• The only credible Christ that the world will see is the Christ we show to it.
  

The problem of identifying evangelicals

The use of the term evangelical is used to cover extreme conservatives all the way to Roman Catholics and some Orthodox church leaders. Who is in and who is out?

• Establishing identity of evangelicals is difficult
  
• No individual evangelical group has the right to declare that it defines what an evangelical is.
  
• The truth should not be used to bludgeon others
  
• The truth should not be used to exclude others
  
• Evangelicals are not the final arbiters of the truth (those who make final judgments)
  
• Should be recognized by a commitment to the Bible and its authority in all matters of doctrine and ethics
  
• No single cultural interpretation should be allowed to dominate
  
• Orthodoxy is critical, but it is bigger than all of us. We are not appointed to be God's thought-police.
  
• God is not party-political
  
• Our evangelical status is not based on how we vote
  

Evangelicals and their relationship to the world

In the moral realm the church has lost all the battles—marriage, abortion, homosexuality.

• We need to maintain our standards, but stop screaming about them.
  
• Give up the Moral Majority mindset
  
• Watch how we deal with matters. Sometimes our approach destroys the message before or as it is delivered
  
  • Pat Robertson recommending the assassination of President Chavez of Venezuela
    
• Not giving uncritical support of Israel. There are 1.5 million Palestinian Christians. We need to learn how to mingle revelation, prophecy, and political justice.
  

Edwards concludes this section with this powerful statement:

"We are called to model a better way more that we are called to criticize the existing one. We are called to be the solution we want to see in the midst of the moral and social fragmentation of western societies. We are called to measure our effectiveness not by the size of our churches but by their impact on our communities and the radical discipleship of their members." (98)

TRANSFORMATION

• Begins with a personal encounter with God because our sins have been forgiven.
  
• Our goal needs to be bring this transformation to others
  
• A Christianity that fails to begin with the individual will never begin.
  
• Transformation is not utopianism and does not obligate us to any particular millennial position.
  
• We should not pretend that we can create perfect societies.
  
• In the process of transformation some will be saved, but everyone will benefit
  
• Transformation is not optional. It is what God is doing in the world and he invites us to participate.
  
• Transformation enforces hope
  
  • Clinics that Ken Black established in Kenya are the only medical hope for a million people now due to the riots in Kenya
    
  • School supplies for Iraq are hope for children who may never have a shot at a decent education.
    

Instead of complaining about the mess, we need to help do something about it.

God's people have always been responsible citizens

• Joseph
  
• Daniel
  
• Jeremiah
  
• Jesus
  
• Paul
  
• Peter
  

Early Christians were noted for the good they did in society, even though they were persecuted and executed. Note the following excerpt from the Letter of Aristides:

But the Christians, O King, while they went about and made search, have found the truth; and as we learned from their writings, they have come nearer to truth and genuine knowledge than the rest of the nations. For they know and trust in God, the Creator of heaven and of earth, in whom and from whom are all things, to whom there is no other god as companion, from whom they received commandments which they engraved upon their minds and observe in hope and expectation of the world which is to come. Wherefore they do not commit neither adultery nor fornication, nor bear false witness, nor embezzle what is held in pledge, nor covet what is not theirs. They honour father and mother, and show kindness to those near to them; and whenever they are judges, they judge uprightly. They do not worship idols (made) in the image of man; and whatsoever they would not that others should do unto them, they do not to others; and of the food which is consecrated to idols they do not eat, for they are pure. And their oppressors they appease (lit: comfort) and make them their friends; they do good to their enemies; and their women, O King, are pure as virgins, and their daughters are modest; and their men keep themselves from every unlawful union and from all uncleanness, in the hope of a recompense to come in the other world. Further, if one or other of them have bondmen and bondwomen or children, through love towards them they persuade them to become Christians, and when they have done so, they call them brethren without distinction. They do not worship strange gods, and they go their way in all modesty and cheerfulness. Falsehood is not found among them; and they love one another, and from widows they do not turn away their esteem; and they deliver the orphan from him who treats him harshly. And he, who has, gives to him who has not, without boasting. And when they see a stranger, they take him in to their homes and rejoice over him as a very brother; for they do not call them brethren after the flesh, but brethren after the spirit and in God. And whenever one of their poor passes from the world, each one of them according to his ability gives heed to him and carefully sees to his burial. And if they hear that one of their number is imprisoned or afflicted on account of the name of their Messiah, all of them anxiously minister to his necessity, and if it is possible to redeem him they set him free. And if there is among them any that is poor and needy, and if they have no spare food, they fast two or three days in order to supply to the needy their lack of food. They observe the precepts of their Messiah with much care, living justly and soberly as the Lord their God commanded them. Every morning and every hour they give thanks and praise to God for His loving-kindnesses toward them; and for their food and their drink they offer thanksgiving to Him. And if any righteous man among them passes from the world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God; and they escort his body as if he were setting out from one place to another near. And when a child has been born to one of them, they give thanks to God; and if moreover it happen to die in childhood, they give thanks to God the more, as for one who has passed through the world without sins. And further if they see that any one of them dies in his ungodliness or in his sins, for him they grieve bitterly, and sorrow as for one who goes to meet his doom.

To be citizens of the Kingdom of God we need:

• Be a little less egotistical; we need to think about our grandchildren
  
• Adopt a more robust citizenship mind
  
• Adopt a passive-active evangelism similar to that used by the Muslims. This is the way the early church conquered the world of its day.
  
• We should constantly demonstrate love and pervasive service in our communities.
  

“‘Big Yeller”

This evening while Alexander the Great Kahunkadunk and I were out for our evening constitutional a big yellow school bus rolled by. Upon seeing it I began to remember back to the years 1957-62 when I drove a school bus for School District #51 in Grand Junction Colorado. I was attending Intermountain Bible College. Since a number of the male students were bus drivers classes did not start until 9:00 am. And as soon as I was able to get a regular route I joined the ranks of the school bus drivers.

We all thought we were men, but we were just boys fresh out of high school. No district in their right mind would have hired such a bunch of guys to work for $1.50 an hour, four hours a day. But I can say with a measure of pride that during the years that we drove none of us had any accidents nor were any children harmed that were in our care. I can assure you that there were a number of Junior Highers we would have like to whomped on, but we didn't.

The IBC gang of drivers consisted of Merv Johnson, the oldest of the group, who was married and had two children. Then there was Gene Talbott and Kenny Egbert, both boys from Delta, Colorado. Vernon Hollett, now a missionary on the Navajo Reservation and Harry Scates, who is a lifetime missionary in Brazil and finally myself, rounded out the group. Ben Spitzer, an elder in the Clifton Christian Church, was the bus driver's supervisor.

Except for changing oil, we did all the other maintenance on the buses. We washed them regularly with hose and soap and water regardless of the weather. A good looking bus was a matter of pride. We fueled them up and maintained the inside as well. My way of cleaning my bus was to open two back windows, open the front door, and let the wind carry the trash out to the outer world. I'm afraid I wasn't very citizen minded, but it was a quick and easy way to clean the bus.

All of the young men mentioned entered the ministry. I went on to become a college professor. Harry Scates and Vernon Hollett would become lifetime missionaries and remain so to this day. Gene Talbott and Kenny Egbert became ministers in the Conservative Baptist church. Merv Johnson never graduated from college but was faithful and successful in ministry up to the time of his retirement.

A Theology of Salvation: Part 1

This project is in response to a request from a good friend in the Zeandale Community church who desires to have a better understanding of the concept of salvation.

Salvation is represented by numerous biblical images which depict what God has done, is presently doing, and what he will do on behalf of humanity. This is in response to the suffering brought on by misery (physical and mental), mortality (the fact that we are all going to die regardless of how long we live), and meaninglessness of the human condition. Salvation refers to the process and the results.

 

Salvation History

The Bible can be seen as one very large, but very basic story. Components of the story are:

• Human beings made in the image of God have complicated their relationship with God due to sin.
  
• Christ the central character
  
• Salvation the plot throughout the book
  

The process or plot goes like this:

• The initial condition in the Garden of Eden
  
• That situation is disturbed by the entrance of sin into the world (the Fall)
  
• The consequences
  
  • Sin entered the world
    
  • Death entered the world
    
  • Human beings became separated from
    
    • God
      
    • Each other
      
    • Nature
      
    • Husband from wife
      
• The process of overcoming the consequences culminating in the cross of Jesus
  
• The resolution of the problem through the resurrection and the Day of Pentecost
  

 

Prior to this time the whole matter was a mystery as to exactly how God intended to save the ungodly. Jesus refers to the "mystery of the kingdom" when he teaches with parables. The disciples get the picture head on, but the crowds have to deal with it in a roundabout sort of way because they are not mentally or spiritually prepared to handle the meat of the message. (Mark 4:11-12). Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 1:3-14. Let's walk through this passage as it is a very powerful one in regard to our salvation.

• EPH 1:3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
  
  • We learn here that God is the author of our salvation
    
  • That salvation includes every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. The "heavenly places" refers to the spiritual realm. We live in two worlds all at the same time. One we can easily see because it is the physical world and can be scientifically studied and analyzed. But the other world is the spiritual world. It is where angels and demons, God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and Satan operate. Most Westerners pay little attention to this aspect of life. Instead we are hung up in the physical world. But God wants to bless us in the spiritual realm. Thus we need to be in tune with that realm. Our door to that world is prayer and the recognition of what the Holy Spirit is prompting us to do.
    
• EPH 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. This verse is often used to prove that predestination is the way God deals with humanity. Predestination says that God has predetermined the eternal fate of everyone. Some even go so far to say that God has even predestined our earthly lives and our goal in life is to discover what God has in mind for us. If we fail to do what God planned for us we will be miserable until we discover what he really intended. Of course, it is not always easy to find that path and some people struggle with God their entire lives trying to figure out what he "really" wanted them to do. The first stage of God's plan is for us to be holy and blameless before him. That desire is not limited to a select "elect" group in the world, but rather to all of humanity.
  
  • Included by some in this concept is the idea that God has planned whom we should marry. In the event we make a mistake the first time, it is legitimate to divorce and remarry the right mate.
    

 

• In love EPH 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, we have an odd break between verses 5 and 6. The real sense is given in the way I have divided the verse. In verse 5 we discover the message of predestination. That predestination is to be adopted as sons by God through Jesus Christ and does not speak of some limited atonement. The issue as to whether or not someone is saved is called of God or not. All are called. The issue is the response.
  
• EPH 1:6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. A major part of God's plan is grace, which is a gift that we cannot earn which he has given us through the Beloved, Jesus Christ.
  
• EPH 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to
  the riches of His grace,
  
  • Redemption, which is the idea we have been purchased back from something, in this case from the price of sin which we committed
    
  • Forgiveness for our trespasses, trespasses referring to things we have deliberately done wrong.
    
• EPH 1:8-10 which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth.
  
• In Him EPH 1:11-12 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. The question needs to be raised as to what is meant by the counsel of His will. Some would suggest that God has a perfect plan for every person and will quote Jeremiah 29:11 in this regard. When you read the context of Jeremiah 29:11 you discover that Jeremiah is talking about those who are about those who have gone into the Babylonian Captivity in 597 BC. Therefore, if Jeremiah 29:11 applies to us today, then we must be experiencing exile.
  
  • How do we know the counsel of God's will? Some wait for some sort of providential guidance that will give them the direction that they need. But the real answer is that we know the will of God, first of all, by reading his revelation—the Bible. God or the Holy Spirit is not going to direct us to contradict the word of God. Some might say that the Bible is not specific enough, so we have to wait on the Spirit of God to tell exactly what to do. The Bible operates on broad principles that we must follow. The exact details of how we do that is left up to us. God also expects to interact with him through prayer and finally to listen to wise counselors about the decisions we need to make. When we do that we are following the will of God.
    
• EPH 1:13-14 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-- having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. After we have heard the message of truth, which was the Gospel of our salvation, we believed and as a result, were sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a pledge. This word refers to a token or down payment that guarantees that the full amount is guaranteed to be forthcoming. We have not experienced the fullness of salvation, but the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives gives us a foretaste of what is to come.
  

  
   

The logic and scope of salvation

• God's dealings with the children of Abraham in the beginning
  
• In the middle the focus turns to Jesus and his followers
  
• The end of the story, which we are still in, embraces the Gentiles and the whole created order.
  

 

The first hint of salvation is found when Eve is confronted by God in regard to her act of sin. God condemned the Serpent for his part in the project, the promise is made in Genesis 2:15, "And the seed of the woman will bruise the head of the seed of the serpent." If this were all we had on the matter, then we would not really be sure what is involved. But God often uses progressive revelation whereby he shows a small part of the big picture, and then expands thereon. The key phrase in this passage is "the seed of the woman." This could be translated "the offspring of the woman," but by keeping the word "seed" we remain closer to the original intent of the writer. Besides the Bible never uses the phrase, "seed of the woman", anywhere else. The "seed" belongs to the man, not the woman.

 

In Genesis 3:15 we also have the phrase "and he shall bruise your heel." This alludes to the cost of salvation, the cross and the death of Christ.

 

In this case God waits several thousand years until the time of the Prophet Isaiah. In response to a challenge from the wicked, worthless Ahaz, God makes this declaration, "Behold a virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Immanuel, which means, 'God with us.'" (Isaiah 7:14). The picture has been made significantly clearer, but the word "virgin" in Hebrew could be translated "young woman" (of marriageable age). It is noteworthy that where this word is used in the Hebrew Bible it clearly refers to a virgin. The passage could refer to a young woman who has recently been married and this is her first child.

 

Thus, it is not until the New Testament that we learn the real intent of Genesis 3:15. When Jesus is born of a virgin, Matthew tells us that this is in fulfillment of the passage we previously quoted in Isaiah 7:14. Jesus did not have an earthly father; thus his earthly seed was that of a woman, the only time that such an event takes place in all of history.

 

• Salvation is accomplished by Jesus Christ
  
• Salvation is celebrated in the life of the church
  
• Salvation comes to an end with the return of Jesus and the end of the world
  

 

Israel and Salvation

• Deliverance from captivity and oppression
  
• Crossing the Red Sea, symbolic of baptism
  

 

The Second Exodus

• Jesus' death or "exodus" from this life
  
• A new deliverance
  
  • Release from the bondage of sin by the death of Jesus