The Four S’s of Salvation, Part 3

June, 2007

by: Tim Carns

If all you had was 30 seconds to proclaim the Gospel to someone, could you do it? Would you be able to tell that person the vital truths so that he or she could understand God’s good news and be saved? This month we will continue discussing those vital truths of the Gospel which are framed around four themes that I call “The four S’s of salvation.”

Sovereign

God alone is the all-powerful, holy, Creator King who must be obeyed.

Sinner

All mankind has rebelled against God, deserving the punishment of hell.

Savior

Jesus Christ, the Lord will judge His enemies and save His friends through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.

Summons

You must repent from your sins and believe in Christ to be saved.

Remember that central to the Gospel message is that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to establish the righteous reign of God and will save His friends and judge His enemies. His friends are those who heed the call of the Gospel to believe in the Lord Jesus to be saved. The Gospel outline presented above represents the key pillars in your Gospel presentation. The last two reviews have been following a Gospel conversation we’ve been having with a co-worker, Frank. We have discussed the first two key elements (Sovereign and Sinner) and will now see how to explain the third pillar of our Gospel outline—Savior.

Let’s get back to our conversation with Frank in the coffee shop…

Though we have all rebelled against God, deserving eternal punishment in Hell, all is not lost. God has given us hope. Instead of destroying this rebellious world, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to reconcile the world to Himself and to make everything right. God had promised He would send someone who would be King over all the earth (Dan 7:13-14; Is 9:6). That promise was fulfilled when Jesus was born over 2000 years ago in Israel to a virgin girl named Mary (Matt 1:23; Lk 1:31-34). Even the place of His birth in Bethlehem was predicted several hundred years before it happened (Micah 5:2).

The coming of Jesus Christ is the most important event in human history because He brings the Good News that God’s reign on earth will soon be established (Mk 1:14-15) and that He will extend mercy to all rebels who want to be right with God (2 Cor 5:19; Eph 2:8-9). You see, not only did God promise that the One He sent would be King, but also that He would be the Savior of the World, paying the penalty for our sins (Is 53:5-6, 12). That’s why His name is Jesus, which means “Savior.” Jesus came and lived a perfect life (2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:22) which no man or woman before or since has been able to do (Rom 3:10). He committed no sin, perfectly obeying God His entire life. Because He lived the perfect life He could die in the place of those who have lived a sinful life, like you and me (2 Cor 5:21; Rom 5:8; 1 Pet 2:24). You’ve probably seen crosses on peoples necklaces or on church buildings. The cross is such an important symbol to Christians because it is on a cross that Jesus suffered this death (Phil 2:8).

This may seem a little confusing, so I’ll try to explain it better to you. In the Old Testament times before Jesus came, God had given the Israelites a way for them to receive God’s forgiveness for their sins. God required that they sacrifice an animal for their sin so that they would see sin demands punishment of death (Heb 9:22; Lev 17:11). The problem with these sacrifices was that they had to be done over and over and over because they were not sufficient to cover all their sins (Heb 10:11). But Jesus, the perfect man (Heb 4:15), was called the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn 1:29) because no other sacrifices are now required (Heb 10:12-14). The shedding of His blood is able to cover the sins of any and all who desire to be forgiven (1 Jn 2:2). Jesus is able to offer forgiveness for sin to anyone who asks Him because He took care of the payment of death that we deserved (Col 1:20).

Not only does the Bible proclaim that Jesus is the King who will rule the world and that by His death on the cross He is Savior of the world, but it also reveals that He is both man and God (Jn 1:1-3, 14; Col 1:15; Titus 2:13; Heb 1:3; 2 Pet 1:1). Many religions wrongly teach that Jesus was either only a man, or was a kind of superman, or was a god, but not God. But the Bible clearly says that Jesus is the God who created the world (Jn 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:3) and Who now sustains it (Col 1:17; Heb 1:3). Jesus Himself claimed to be God (Jn 8:58; 10:30) and was very clear that anyone who rejected His deity could not be forgiven (Jn 8:24).

Now everything I’ve told you about Jesus would not be true if one specific event did not happen after Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus Himself predicted that He would die several times before it actually happened (Matt 16:21; Lk 9:22), even predicting it would be on a cross (Lk 20:17-19). But, not only did He predict His death, He also predicted that on the third day after His death He would rise from the dead (Lk 17:23; 20:19). And this is exactly what happened (Matt 28:7; 1 Cor 15:3-4)! The Bible says that Jesus’ resurrection proves all that He claimed about Himself is true. It shows that Jesus has power over Satan, sin, and death (Heb 2:14-15; Rom 6:4-7; 2 Tim 1:8-10; Col 2:13-15). Through His resurrection, Jesus shows that He is Lord over all (Phil 2:9-11; Acts 2:22-24, 36; Rom 14:9) and can offer you a future hope over sin and death (1 Cor 15:23, 54-57; 1 Thess 4:13-18).

So Jesus is THE ONLY ONE who can offer you forgiveness (Luke 24:46-47) because He is THE ONLY ONE who lived a perfect life, died for sinners, and rose from the dead. There is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12; 1 Jn 5:11). He is THE ONLY WAY for you to be saved from your sin (Jn 14:6). Other religions teach that there are many ways to Heaven and that there are many ways to please God or to be forgiven. Frank, this is simply not true at all. The Bible is perfectly clear on this. Only Jesus Christ—God and King over this earth—can offer you forgiveness and save you from the punishment of hell and the power of sin. Jesus is the only means for obtaining reconciliation with God. He alone has paid the penalty for sin by His death on the cross.

The first time that Jesus came, He died and rose again to show He was the Savior King who had long been promised (Gen 3:15). He is able to rescue those who were rebels against Him and change them into true worshippers of God (II Cor. 5:15, 17, John 4:23). Jesus can liberate people from the powers of evil and make them a new God-fearing person (Col 1:13-14; 2:13-15; Gal 1:4) or born again (John 3:3,7). Because He rose, you can have hope that we too will rise from the dead (1 Cor 15:12-17) and be with Him in Heaven (1 Thess 4:16-17; 2 Cor 5:8) if you cry out for His forgiveness. God calls you to seek the crucified Christ now to be saved. He warns that if you reject Christ now as your Savior you will meet Him later as judge (Jn 12:38; Acts 17:30-31). In the end, Christ alone will bring God's rebellious world into submission to God's rule (I Cor 15:24, 28).

The question you need to ask yourself is, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) God gives us the clear answer in His Word—you must repent from your sins and believe in Christ to be saved.

Stay tuned for next month’s explanation of what this means.