Salvation
SALVATION
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
All that has been said up to this point, is foundation for the remainder of this letter. Now, we move on to the common salvation…the faith once delivered to the saints. We’re past the Roman Road, and Grace Only. Hopefully you’ve grasped the nature of tares, and are reading His book. You’re in the right ballpark. If you concur that the eleven Apostle’s, the Lord’s mother, and the 108 who joined them in the upper room, qualify as saints…then it should follow that whatever their experience was, qualifies as the common salvation. Their experience, 7 days after the Olivet ascension, is fully detailed in the first two chapters of Acts. It’s not complicated. It’s right there on the surface. I cannot understand why the Roman Road and grace-only camps, fail to see that their salvation message…nay, but their salvation experience…is at odds with these original experiences.
The annuls of Acts, are the launching of the arrow, as it were. When you shoot an arrow at a target…be it 100 yards or 2,000 years away…if your aim is off by a quarter of an inch at the start, you’ll miss the target by a long shot. If these original saints…if the first message preached…if the first response to that message; varied one iota from what God ordained before the beginning, then the entire New Covenant was launched in error. You, friend, must decide. Either the Word of God is inspired and infallible, and the church got off on the right foot, or the Acts accounts are in error, and our arrow is lost somewhere out in the weeds.
The parting words of our Lord, just prior to His ascension, are recorded in 3 of the 4 gospels. This was not a public sermon to thousands, but a time of intimate instruction to the remaining apostle’s.
…All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
We’ve coined the term “the great commission” for these three verses, but we should take care not to dispense with rightly dividing scripture in lieu of these. We still must become as a little child. We still must be born again of the Spirit. We still must take up our cross daily and follow Him. This great commission doesn’t strip away every other mandate from the Lord concerning salvation. They all compliment one another. They are the strait gate.
New Covenant salvation…the new birth…the second birth…the baptism of the Holy Ghost…being born again…and being born of the Spirit, are all synonymous terms for the same experience. Spiritual rebirth is in fact the underlying theme of the entire bible. Its truths are both scripture-wide, and nature-wide. Every year, the death of autumn, the burial of winter, and the resurrection of spring, are but His creation preaching the gospel of salvation to humanity.
Jesus preached adamantly that we must be born again. As He walked the dusty streets of Palestine, Jesus knew that every single person around Him was dead…their life serum infected…and that in Him alone was life and hope. The law of sin and death courses through our veins. Even the new birth cannot eradicate it. It remains in our members until the day we die. There is no repairing or saving our flesh. Even the bible offers no cure. Recipients of great miracles, continue to age and die. The vessel of sin must be destroyed. Such is the strength of God’s appointments:
and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. Only by being born again, can we hope to find eternal life and peace with God.
The life that resided inside of Jesus Christ could only benefit Him, unless a way could be found to release it upon all of humanity. The climax of Jesus’ ministry was not His death, His burial, or His resurrection. His death without His burial could not help me. His death and burial without His resurrection, is ineffectual. His death, burial, and resurrection without His ascension and glorification, could not save me. Each of these were required, before the climax and purpose of His ministry could be realized…to take the life which dwelt in Him alone, and make it available to whosoever will.
Following the great commission given to the apostles, we move next to Jerusalem, where Jesus said all of this would begin. In obedience to the Lord’s command, 120 believers patiently waited seven days in an upper room, for the promise of the fathers…the baptism of the Holy Ghost. If you’ve never read the 2nd chapter of Acts, now is the time to lay this letter aside and do so. Here we find the pivot point of time and eternity. Here is where 4,000 years of God’s unfolding revelation reaches its climax. Here is where the deciding blow is struck, in the age-old battle between good and evil. It is God’s three point basket at the buzzer…God’s winning touchdown as time expires…God’s walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 9th. It is the purpose, the motivation, and the defining moment behind the ministry of Jesus Christ. The church…the body of Christ…was here conceived of the Holy Ghost…just as our Master…the Christ…was in Galilee. The Holy Ghost was poured out on the 120 who tarried. The world was set on fire. Our Moses made his second descent down Sinai, and delivered the New Covenant to us.
After this momentous Pentecost morning, the apostle Peter stands to deliver the very first sermon of the New Testament church. Like a new ship christened for its maiden voyage, Peter’s sermon would be a defining moment in the church’s first step forward. Here at the very beginning, we shall find the truth about salvation…and the enemy’s attempt to derail it. Unpolluted by time, opinion, or man’s interpretations, this sermon would represent obedience to the Lord in its purest form. Here we would find how the apostle’s interpreted the great commission.
Peter begins by explaining to everyone, what it is they are witnessing; and cites the prophesies to support it. …these are not drunken, as ye suppose… He goes on to tell them about Jesus of Nazareth whom they had crucified, but whom God had resurrected and glorified. In conclusion, he informs them that this same Jesus had received the promised Holy Ghost, baptizing these 120 believers with the same.
A holy conviction moved across the crowd of thousands. They were overwhelmed with sorrow, guilt, and regret for the terrible thing they had done…Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain… How did this crowd of thousands respond to Peter’s sermon? …and they said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? In other words, how can we remove this our shame, having slain the Lord of glory? What shall we do to ease the guilt of our sin? How many sheep? How many oxen? What must we do to be saved? This is the response that met the first sermon.
|