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Sometime after his
temptation in the wilderness, Jesus went
into Nazareth, the town in which he was
raised and stood up to read from the
scriptures.
Jesus read a messianic
prophecy from the book of Isaiah that
alluded to the year of Jubilee when He said,
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he
has anointed me to preach good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for
the prisoners and recovery of sight for the
blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim
the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he
rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the
attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone
in the synagogue were fastened on him, and
he began by saying to them, “Today this
scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’”
(Luke 4:18-21 NIV; cf. Isa. 61:1-2)
Israel had a year of Jubilee every fiftieth
year that allowed for God’s people to
experience a new beginning. Everyone’s debts
were forgiven, the slaves were set free from
captivity, and ancestral lands were returned
to the family that originally owned it (see
Lev. 25:10). All of the Old Covenant rituals
pointed foreword to Christ’s ministry on our
behalf in some way, but they were in types
and shadows. They were but veiled pictures
of what was to come, Christ is the substance
(Col. 2:17; Heb. 8:5; 10:1 ). He is the
fulfillment of all of our hopes
and expectations (Luke 2:25-32; Mark 1:15;
Matt. 5:17-19; Gal. 4:4-5; Eph. 1:10).
When Jesus said, “Today this scripture
is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21),
He was proclaiming himself to be the
Messianic figure that Israel looked forward
to for deliverance from oppression. Most of
the people in Israel were hoping their
Messiah would deliver them from Roman
captivity, but the good news that Jesus
proclaimed was our deliverance from
captivity to sin (see Luke 1:77; 7:47; 24:47;
Acts 2:38; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18). Jesus came to offer us the total
forgiveness of our spiritual debt and a new
beginning when we accept His message of
salvation by grace through faith in Him
alone.
“In him we
have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of our trespasses, according to
the riches of his grace, which he lavished
upon us, in all wisdom and insight making
known to us the mystery of his will,
according to his purpose, which he set forth
in Christ as a plan for the fullness of
time, to unite all things in him, things in
heaven and things on earth.” (Eph. 1:7-10).
Jesus came to set us free from
our captivity to the Law to be
saved by grace alone.
Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His
own love for us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.” And Titus 3:5-7
says, “he saved us, not because of
works done by us in righteousness, but
according to his own mercy, by the washing
of regeneration and renewal of the Holy
Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that
being justified by his grace we might become
heirs according to the hope of eternal
life.”
Salvation is not achieved
through human efforts but comes through God’s
mercy alone when we are born again through
the power of God’s Spirit living inside us
(Eph. 2:8-9; 4:20-24; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 6:19).
Jesus told
His followers what His gospel was
and what He wants us to do about it.
Luke 24:45-49 says, “Then
he opened their minds to understand the
Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is
written, that the Christ should suffer and
on the third day rise from the dead, and
that repentance and forgiveness of sins
should be proclaimed in his name to all
nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are
witnesses of these things. And behold, I am
sending the promise of my Father upon you.
But stay in the city until you are clothed
with power from on high.”
The Apostle
Paul received this early confessional
statement given to him when he first became
a Christian that describes the gospel
message that Jesus gave to His church to
preach.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 says, “For I
delivered to you as of first importance what
I also received: that Christ died for our
sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that
he was buried, that he was raised on the
third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the
twelve. Then he appeared to more than five
hundred brothers at one time, most of whom
are still alive, though some have fallen
asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to
all the apostles. Last of all, as to one
untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
The gospel that Paul preached was the
same, simple, gospel message that Jesus and the early
church proclaimed. The message of the gospel
was, “that the Christ should suffer and on
the third day rise from the dead, and that
repentance and forgiveness of sins should be
proclaimed in his name to all nations.”
Paul did not originate the message he
proclaimed, but received it from other
Christians. The Greek verbs used for
receiving, and transmitting tradition were
technical terms used for passing on a body
of information.
“Paul probably
received this confessional statement 20
years earlier at his baptism in Damascus and
later handed it over to the Corinthians when
he established the church there. This vital
summary of Christian belief was formed
during the period between Christ’s
resurrection and Paul’s Damascus call and
baptism… This statement may be the earliest
formulation of New Testament Christianity, predating
Paul’s earliest letters by 15 years.”
[1]
The good
news of the gospel is simple, we don’t have
to keep God’s law perfectly to be saved.
It’s already been done for us! Jesus lived a
perfect life so that we could have
a new life based on faith in Him alone through
the power of the Spirit. Jesus gave His life
so we could have eternal life and receive
adoption into the family of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says,
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew
no sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.” And Galatians 4:4-5
says, “But when the fullness of time had
come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman,
born under the law, to redeem those who
were under the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons.”
Our part in this
process is to believe that Jesus died for our sins
and was raised three days later for our
redemption, repent of our sins, and accept
Christ as Lord and Savior. That means we have
to give our hearts to God and make Jesus
Christ the focus of our lives (Rom. 14:9; Eph. 4:25;
2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Jn. 1:9).
From
its very
beginning, the Church had to fight
against the false gospel of
works-righteousness.
God’s grace
can be a difficult concept for some people to
grasp. It goes counter to our human nature. God’s grace is given to us freely, it
cannot be earned. And God has extended it to
those who don’t deserve it. Although grace
is sometimes hard to comprehend, God means for us to
have grace and experience it on a daily
basis. Religion tells us that we must do
certain things to be saved. Grace tells us
our salvation is already a done deal when we rest in
what Christ has accomplished for us through
the power of the cross (Col. 2:14; Gal. 4:1-5).
False teachers were saying
Christians were required to keep the Old
Covenant law.
Paul said in Galatians 3:1-5,
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched
you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was
clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like
to learn just one thing from you: Did you
receive the Spirit by observing the law, or
by believing what you heard? Are you so
foolish? After beginning with the Spirit,
are you now trying to attain your goal by
human effort? Have you suffered so much for
nothing — if it really was for nothing? Does
God give you his Spirit and work miracles
among you because you observe the law, or
because you believe what you heard?”
Trying to keep the laws of the Old
Covenant is a stumbling block.
Galatians 3:10-12 says, “For all who rely on
works of the law are under a curse; for it
is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not
abide by all things written in the Book of
the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident
that no one is justified before God by the
law, for “The righteous shall live by
faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather
“The one who does them shall live by them”
(see also: Deut. 27:26; 28:15; Rom. 2:23-25; 3:19; 10:5).
The false gospel of legalism is a curse, it
is a bewitching lie that leads people away
from living their lives through the power of
the Holy Spirit by trusting in the things we
can do to deserve salvation. The Galatians
were mistakenly trying to achieve perfection
through their own efforts.
When someone is teaching a false gospel we have
an obligation to warn the Church
about the danger they are in.
Galatians 1:6-9 says, “I am astonished
that you are so quickly deserting him who
called you in the grace of Christ and are
turning to a different gospel— not that
there is another one, but there are some who
trouble you and want to distort the gospel
of Christ. But even if we or an angel from
heaven should preach to you a gospel
contrary to the one we preached to you, let
him be accursed. As we have said before, so
now I say again: If anyone is preaching to
you a gospel contrary to the one you
received, let him be accursed.”
2 Peter 3:17 says, “You therefore,
beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your
guard so that you are not carried away by
the error of unprincipled men and fall from
your own steadfastness,”
Romans 16:17-18 says,
“Now I urge you, brethren,
keep your eye on those who cause dissensions
and hindrances contrary to the teaching
which you learned, and turn away from them.
For such men are slaves, not of our Lord
Christ but of their own appetites; and by
their smooth and flattering speech they
deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.”
And Colossians 2:8 says, “See to it that no
one takes you captive by philosophy and
empty deceit, according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits of the
world, and not according to Christ.”
The only way anyone can be saved is to
believe the true gospel and accept Jesus Christ as
their Lord and Savior.
A lord is someone with authority,
control, or power over you. When you say
someone is your “lord” you consider that
person master and ruler over your life (Rom. 5:1; 6:23;
Phil. 2:11).
A Savior is a rescuer, redeemer, or one
who saves someone else. Jesus Christ is the Savior
of the world.
Jesus rescues us from sin and eternal
punishment when we trust in Him by faith. He
is our redeemer because He paid the cost of
our sins through His death on the cross. He
can save us because He has the power to
forgive sins and the desire to save those
who put their trust in Him alone (1 Jn. 4:14; Acts 5:31;
Phil. 3:20).
To accept
Jesus as your Lord and Savior means to
acknowledge Him as the leader of your life
and trust in Him alone for your
redemption.
John 1:12 says,
“But to all who did receive him, who
believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God.”
And John 3:16
adds, “For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only Son, that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal
life.”
Trusting in
Jesus Christ to save you is your only hope
of salvation.
The book of Romans
gives us a detailed map for understanding the
steps to coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
1. We
have to realize
that we are all sinners and need God’s
forgiveness. Romans 3:23 says,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God.”
2. Jesus
Christ died for our sins and paid the
price for our salvation. Through His death, the
debt we owed was satisfied.
Romans 5:8 says, “but God shows his love for
us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.”
3. The
consequence of sin is death, thus we need
the salvation God offers us to escape the
eternal consequences of our sin. Romans 6:23 says,
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free
gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.”
4. We must confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead. Romans 10:9-10 says, “because, if you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be saved. For
with the heart one believes and is
justified, and with the mouth one confesses
and is saved.”
5. Only those who
truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will
be saved. Romans 10:13 says, “For everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved.”
NOTE: “Everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved.’” This truth is for all
people of all classes, colors, cultures, and
countries. Anyone who turns to Jesus Christ
will be saved. He is rich to all who call
upon Him. That should encourage our sharing
the gospel with everyone. People are lost
until they hear the gospel and believe it.
Many may not hear if you do not obey God’s
call and witness to the gospel.”
[2]
Notice how simple the book of Romans
tells us accepting the gospel is:
(1)
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord;
(2) believe that God raised him from the
dead, and;
(3) be saved!
When we accept the salvation offered to us
through Jesus Christ we enter into a
saving relationship of peace with God. When we
accept God’s free gift, we have the assurance of
knowing we will never be condemned.
Here are some other good verses from the
book of Romans to remember:
•
Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Romans 6:12-14,
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body, to make you obey its passions. Do not
present your members to sin as instruments
for unrighteousness, but present yourselves
to God as those who have been brought from
death to life, and your members to God as
instruments for righteousness. For sin will
have no dominion over you, since you are not
under law but under grace.”
• Romans 7:4,
“Likewise, my brothers, you also have died
to the law through the body of Christ, so
that you may belong to another, to him who
has been raised from the dead, in order that
we may bear fruit for God.”
• Romans 7:6,
“But now we are released from the law,
having died to that which held us captive,
so that we serve in the new way of the
Spirit and not in the old way of the written
code.”
• Romans 8:1-4, “There is
therefore now no condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the
Spirit of life has set you free in Christ
Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God
has done what the law, weakened by the
flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that
the righteous requirement of the law might
be fulfilled in us, who walk not according
to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
• Romans 8:38-39, “For I am sure that neither death
nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things
present nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We have all sinned and deserve death,
but God the Father, sent His one and only
Son to satisfy the judgment we deserve.
Jesus lived a sinless life and died for our
sins, taking our punishment upon Himself
so we could be eternally saved. If you
receive Jesus Christ alone by faith as your
Lord and Savior, you can know with certainty
that you have eternal life (Gal. 6:7-8; 1 Tim. 6:12;
John 3:16, 36; 5:24; 1 Jn. 5:13).
In every age there have been those who
have trusted in what they can do to earn salvation.
The Bible tells us over and over again that
there is nothing we can do to earn our
salvation. It is a free gift purchased for
us by the blood of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s
cross. The false gospel of works-righteousness that Paul
warned us about in Galatians is performing
certain acts, or trusting in
our own efforts to be saved. Anytime we take
our focus off of Christ and strive to keep
certain rituals we insult the Spirit of
grace and fall under a curse
that can only lead to eternal death (Heb. 10:29).
The word “gospel” means good news.
We are saved
when we trust in what God has done for us
through Jesus Christ alone, period! There is
nothing said about keeping this day, or that
day, not eating certain foods, or offering
animal sacrifices for our sins. We are saved
by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for our
salvation.
When we become
Christians, we become Christ’s new creation!
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creation. The old has
passed away; behold, the new has come. All
this is from God, who through Christ
reconciled us to himself and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation; that is, in
Christ God was reconciling the world to
himself, not counting their trespasses
against them, and entrusting to us the
message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are
ambassadors for Christ, God making his
appeal through us. We implore you on behalf
of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our
sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.”
Jesus transforms
us into His image because we have made Him
the Lord of our life, not because of the
works we do. When we focus on keeping the
law we are focused on our own performance. When
we focus on serving Jesus we are
Christ-focused and loving others will be the
natural result (Heb. 12:2; John 13:35; Rom. 13:8-10).
When we
become Christians, we are made part of God’s
family through the power of the Holy Spirit
living inside of us!
Everything of eternal value in
this life and in eternity comes through the
work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When
we become a follower of Jesus Christ, God gives us His Holy Spirit
as a guarantee of our redemption (Eph. 1:3-14). Once we become Christ’s disciple and have
received the Holy Spirit, God begins the
sanctifying work of transforming us into the
image of Christ (Rom. 8:29; 12:1-2).
Christ
wants us to share the good news with
those who are lost.
Just
before Jesus left His disciples for the last
time He said to them, “All authority in
heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always, to
the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20)
Jesus last words to His disciples are
what the church calls, the Great Commission.
As Christ’s followers, we are told to go out
and share the good news with those who
haven’t heard it yet. It is a call for
individuals to commit their lives to Jesus
Christ as their one and only, master and
Lord.
Christ sends us out
to lead others to follow Him and His
authority provides all the power we will
need to accomplish this work through the
Holy Spirit’s indwelling. Eternal destinies
are at stake and God has given us the
commission and the power to share His love
with the fallen world. Romans 10:14 says, “How then
will they call on him in whom they have not
believed? And how are they to believe in him
of whom they have never heard? And how are
they to hear without someone preaching?”
Remember how simple the gospel
really is:
Romans 10:9-10
says, “Because, if you confess with your
mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved. For with the heart one
believes and is justified, and with the
mouth one confesses and is saved.”
When we enter into a saving relationship with Jesus
Christ we will do
naturally what we could not do by focusing
on the law. Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by
grace you have been saved through faith. And
this is not your own doing; it is the gift
of God, not a result of works, so that no
one may boast. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we
should walk in them.”
Beware
of the
ever-present
danger of legalism!
Paul wrote the
book of Galatians because he had become
aware of a perversion of the gospel of grace
that was infecting the Galatian church.
The false teachers who had gone to Galatia
were advocating salvation by “works of
the law.” The Judaizers were insisting that
the Gentiles be forced to keep the Mosaic
Law, including the holy days and
circumcision.
Paul said in Galatians 4:10-11,
“You observe days and months and seasons and
years! I am afraid I may have labored over
you in vain.”
Paul said the Galatians were being asked
to accept a different gospel from the one he
shared with them (Gal. 1:6-7). Paul had to convince the
young church that the legalistic message of
the Judaizers was a perversion of the gospel
of Christ. It was the false gospel of
works-righteousness. Paul said the
Galatians were in danger of leaving the true
gospel behind for a false religion that was
powerless to save them. That’s not good news
at all. Paul loved them too
much to let them be deceived.
The
salvation Jesus offers us is not based on
our works! If it were, then those who are
saved would get all of the glory. “To this
he called you through our gospel, so that
you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” (2 Thess. 2:14)
No human
effort can contribute to our salvation; it
is solely the gift of God (Isa. 64:6;
Rom. 3:20; 5:1-2; Titus 3:5). The good works
Christians do are the result of the work
that the Holy Spirit does inside of them as
they become more and more like Christ Jesus. Any reliance
on the things we do is a rejection of the
gospel of grace.
Are you
willing to trust in Jesus Christ alone for
your salvation?
References:
1. The
Apologetics Study Bible: 1 Corinthians 15:3-7.
2. The Disciple’s Study Bible:
Romans 10:12-15.
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