Season 2: Ep 5 - When Were You Saved?
There are three acts in the story of Salvation, and they take up all of time. How exactly were we saved? When does that happen? What are the results?
Podcast Transcript - When Were We Saved? Justification
Our previous lesson we finished talking about the concept of Salvation but you really can't finish talking about the concept of Salvation that quickly. I think it's just so large and so big. In fact salvation has three acts to it that take up all of time. There's the past act, which is justification. There's the present act, which is sanctification. And in the future act, which is glorification. If we're really going to understand this great gift of salvation then we're going to need to unpack each one of these aspects. That's what we're going to do over the next couple episodes.
Today's episode we're going to talk about the concept of justification. I don't know if you've ever heard this question before but it shows up pretty commonly repeatedly in the Christian faith, When were you saved? As you begin to think about that question and what how you would answer it many of us would turn and say, it was on April 15th of 2012. Or we might say I don't know when I was saved, I grew up in the church and I've always turned to Jesus from when I could remember, for Him to heal, for Him to fix things. But there are many of us who as we think about it we come to a very good answer and we say “I was saved 2000 years ago”, “ I was saved at the moment that Jesus gave his life on the cross for my life and for all of his creation to redeem it and make it right.” That's exactly the perfect response it is the objective truth. It was done by Him long before we ever showed up in need of all the things that God wants to give us through his sacrificial death on this cross.
The first thing that we see coming through God salvation that was purchased for us long before we ever existed is acquittal. It's talked about with a really fancy word in Romans chapter 3 as propitiation. In verse 23 it says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation or payment in his blood through faith.” We had broken a lot of windows we had run amok with all of our choices to do whatever we wanted to do and God as a good father came behind us and said “Let me pay for that, let me fix that, let me make things right.”
That payment is a finished work. That's why in Romans chapter 5:1 it says “Therefore having been justified (it's not going to be justified it's a past tense) by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The person who we had offended most was God because He had set up His world to be run His way, to bring goodness to all of his creation. When we did what we wanted to do it didn't just hurt us, it hurt all of his creation. It hurt everything and so the payment had to be paid to God Himself, to pay back, to make right what had been made wrong, by all of our choices.
Now when Christ paid for our punishment, when He paid for our sins it's not only a finished work it is full deliverance. That's why in Romans chapter 8 Paul says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” It's all been paid for. It's done, there's nothing hanging over our head. God's not coming back later to say “I forgot to talk to you about this, oh that thing that we never kind of brought up, and talked about explicitly, I still can't believe you did that, I just can't bless you, I can't love you the way that I probably should.” No! Jesus paid it all and that's why we say all to Him we owe. What we owe Him is our life because He gave His life to us. It's not a repayment, it's a relationship. Paul talks about that just a few chapters back in Romans chapter 6 when he says this “Now if we have died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead is never to die again. Death no longer is master over Him for the death that He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life that He lives He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” He gives us His life we give Him ours. His new life that was accomplished through His resurrection now becomes our new life that promises us resurrection. An opportunity to stand again when we don't think that there's any way that we could find ourselves out of the hole that we've dug.
Not only are we saved from this this horrible life of just trying to repay God for all the mess that we made but He makes us His children. Apostle John that Jesus loves said “Became to us and those who received Him, He gave the right to be called children of God.” Or re established in His family. We are loved by Him. We can sit on His lap and tell him our deepest needs. He cares for us in this process.
Not only does He care for us but He cares for all of His people. We see this in 1 Peter 1:3-4, it says “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ or according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance imperishable and undefiled, that will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” When we hear that we've received an inheritance we go to our concept of inheritance, Wow I'm going to have a big large bank account that I can use for anything I want or I'm going to get that house. What inheritance meant in Jesus’s world and throughout most of human history, was one plot of land. It had been given from family member to family member for generations. Where they eked out an existence from this one little plot, taking care of every little animal that had been descended from so many. They had watched over this property, over these possessions with care because they knew what they had received had brought them life. What they took care of, this inheritance that they watched over it was going to bring life to future generations. They couldn't waste it. They had to use it purposefully.
This is a beautiful statement, not only does God open up the prison door and say “you're no longer bound by sin. I don't hold anything over you.” I bring you back home and not just back home to sit on the couch and be bored. I bring you back home to work with me, from all the goodness that comes before you. To provide all the goodness for those who will come after you.
We are restored into a grand purpose that makes God salvation the center point of all life. This is a big story, and this is good news. We need to talk about this more, we need to understand justification. As we do, we need to keep asking ourselves this question, Can we be saved, have eternal life in heaven, enter the Kingdom of God and not be a disciple? I leave you with that question and hopefully with an understanding of justification that makes God’s good work that much more important to you today, tomorrow and forever more.
