How Can We Be Saved? (NCC Q29)

• How Can We Be Saved? Only by faith in Jesus Christ and in his substitutionary atoning death on the cross; so even though we are guilty of having disobeyed God and are still inclined to all evil, nevertheless, God, without any merit of our own but only by pure grace, imputes to us the perfect righteous- ness of Christ when we repent and believe in him.
• “My hope does not live because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith does not rest upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me.” - Charles Spurgeon

Recommended Resources

• New City Catechism Commentary: “My hope does not live because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith does not rest upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me.”
• Dressed in His Righteousness Alone (Desiring God): “In justification, Christ’s righteousness does not become ours as some sort of personal possession. It is counted or reckoned as ours. Why? Because we do not perform the acts of justifying righteousness. Christ, as our substitute, lived the perfect life we couldn’t and died the death we deserved. The righteousness of Christ must therefore primarily and exclusively belong to him.”
• The Greatest Issue We Face (Ligonier): “How can an unforgiven person become forgiven? How can an unjust person be justified or be considered just in the sight of God? There are not many issues in theology more serious than that.”

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Before we dive into our lesson tonight, can I get TJ and Jamie and Carson Massingill to come up here? You'll give a round of applause for them. What's up? What's up, Carson? Some of y'all know Carson. If you're a middle school girl, you know who Carson is, but if you're not a middle school girl, and there's a lot of you that are not middle school girls, uh, you may not have had a chance to meet Carson yet. Carson is one of my favorite people in the whole world. She has spina bifida and intellectual disability. And that means that for something like that is normal for us in sitting in a room and hearing about uh and sitting and learning in a setting like this that can be a little challenging for her. She is here to learn because she loves Jesus and she loves being here with y'all. But she might do things that might seem a little distracting. She might talk to you, she might say something, she might shout something out, and if she does, that's okay. She is excited to be here and she's thrilled to be here. And, and I want you all to understand, Redeemer Youth belongs to her just as much as it does to each of you. I want Carson to feel welcomed, just as I want anyone with any special needs to feel welcome in Redeemer Youth because that's how Jesus welcomes us. That's how Jesus loves us and welcomes us. And so, if y'all can do me a favor, and this is not a criticism, nobody has done anything, this is not in response to anything. We just want y'all to know Carson is a is wonderful and awesome. She might do some things that might be distracting, and if she does, that's okay. She's really cool. And you should give her a fist bump later if you see her. Anything else? Awesome. Well, thank y'all. Bye. Bye. Y'all give it up for Carson. So we are continuing our series on Christ's redemption and grace, also known as the gospel and the nuts and bolts of how Jesus saves us. And really up until this point, we've been dealing with a lot of kind of abstract parts that go into the gospel. From this point forward, there's a kind of a twist in what we're going to be covering that is going to be a little bit more nitty-gritty about faith and like what faith is and how faith works specifically. This is what we're going to be really drilling in for the rest of the semester. And we've been doing this using something called the New City Catechism, and a catechism is a tool that helps us understand what we believe by asking questions and getting good answers. There's a lot of material on the New City Catechism on the internet. A lot of it's free. You can dig deeper into this if you want. You can also go and listen to the Redeemer Youth Podcast if you missed any previous entries in this and want to dig deeper in that as well. And as usual, text in your questions at any point. You can text in your questions at any point. You don't have to wait until the end if you don't want to. If we don't answer your question on stage, I promise that I will text you back tomorrow. And several of you have taken me up on that. Like several of you have genuinely taken me up on that. There was one student. I don't know who it is. I don't know who you are. I don't uh import phone numbers or phone numbers or anything like that. So it's all just it's all just random invisible numbers to me. I don't know who you are unless you tell me. Uh I had a lot of fun over spring break with somebody who's reading through uh Deuteronomy and texting me all of their hard questions about what they're reading in Deuteronomy. That stuff makes my day. Uh so feel free to do that. Um, even if we don't answer your question on stage, I'll get back to you, or you can talk to your leader. They would always love to talk with you about any questions you may have. Don't feel like you can't participate in QA just because you don't have a phone. But where are we going tonight? What is our destination tonight? This is where we're going. How can we be saved? Only by faith in Jesus Christ and his substitutionary atoning death on the cross. So even though we are guilty of having disobeyed God and are still inclined to all evil, nevertheless, God, without any merit of our own, but only by pure grace, imputes to us, which basically means credits to us, applies to us, the perfect righteousness of Christ when we repent and believe in Him. Said another way, a really famous quote from Charles Spurgeon. My hope does not live because I'm not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died. My trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my righteousness. My faith does not rest upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is now doing for me. So that's our destination tonight. How do we get there? Well, right off the bat, some of you may be thinking, why do I have to believe in Jesus to be saved? If I try hard to be kind and do the right thing, why isn't that enough for God? Y'all turn to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8. First one to find it gets to shout it out. Ephesians 2.8.

unknown 5:37

9.17.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

9.17. Good job. That's not where we're gonna start. We're gonna end up there here in a second, but Ephesians 2.8, y'all go ahead and turn there. We're gonna start in Romans 3, 9 through 12. And we'll have that on the screen for y'all. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. This is a familiar verse to a lot of you, but we just need to start set this as our starting point. That Scripture is clear that all of us are prone to sin. God's standard is his holiness, not our own idea of what ought to be good enough for him. Okay, so let's keep going. This is Galatians 2, 16. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Jesus Christ in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. If your thought is that you can save yourself and if you can earn your salvation by being a good and moral person, the Bible is clear that you've already failed at this. Not might fail, not could fail, not maybe will fail. It's already happened. And it's a one-time test. And all of us in this room, in one way, shape, or form, have failed it. Nobody in this room can attain to God's holiness by our keeping of God's commands in our own strength. Now let's look at the passage I'll turn to in Ephesians. Ephesians 2, 8 through 9. 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. You cannot be saved by trying hard to be kind or nice or right, doing the right thing. You can only be saved by the grace of God. If your hope is that you are a good enough person, if your confidence is that I'm a good enough person for God to accept me based on how I treat other people or the things I believe or this and that, you will miss out on the free gift of grace for those who put their faith in Jesus. And that gift of grace is greater than anything you could ever attain on your own. But some of you may be thinking, why does God treat people who just trust Jesus the same as people who have tried to be good really hard their whole life? That sounds unfair to the people who have strived to be good people. That's a great question. Y'all turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26. First person to find it gets to shout the page number. 1 Corinthians 1, 26.

unknown 9:16

895.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

895. Good job, Oli. We're not going to start there, but that's where we're going to end up. The place we're going to start is again in Romans. Romans 4, 2 through 5. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. God is gracious. And by his grace and by faith in Christ, he gives us something that we do not deserve. If God gave us what we deserved, it would be a condemnation. It would be a punishment for our sin. It would not be salvation. God saves bad people, evil people, ungodly people by giving them his free gift of grace by faith. Let's keep going. This is Titus chapter 3, verses 4 through 7. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 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. God is not meeting us halfway, a quarterway, eight way. God is covering the full bill because of his love and his mercy and his kindness. And this offer of love and mercy and kindness in the gospel is equal for all of us, regardless of the life a person has lived. All of us before God receive the same grace that covers us totally and fully and completely. We add nothing, and we can't take away anything from God's grace, but we don't add anything to it. Now let's look at 1 Corinthians 1, 26 through 31. This is the passage that y'all turn to. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, let the one who boasts boasts in the Lord. See, God often uses those that seem the least likely to come to Jesus. You read the gospel stories, and it's not the rich, the powerful, or the educated that are coming to Jesus. It's the people that seem the least likely to turn away from their sins and place their faith in Jesus and follow him that do so to show those who trust in themselves, who think they're good enough, who think they're righteous enough, that God's grace is greater than our own self-righteousness. Nobody, none of us, gets to boast about how good of a person we are before God. Before Him, we are all equal and all in need of the same Savior. Okay, but some of you may be thinking, if I still feel tempted to sin and if I mess up a lot, what's the point of saying that I'm saved by faith? Doesn't that mean that nothing actually changed inside of me? That's a really good question, too. Y'all turn to 1 John chapter 1, verse 5. 1 John 1, chapter chapter 1, verse 5. Say it again. 959. 2 and 3 tonight, good job. We're gonna start it back again in Romans. We'll have this on the screen. Romans 6, 15 through 18. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. See, if you've placed your faith in Christ, if you've placed your faith in Christ for your salvation, you belong to him. You will still sin, but you are not a slave of sin any longer. And that may sound like the same thing, but I promise that's a massive difference. Christ has forgiven you of your sin, he has set you free from the power of sin, and he has given you something that you didn't have before you placed your faith in Christ. And that is a new heart given to you by the Holy Spirit that longs to love God and obey his commands and actually has the power to do so. You didn't have that before you became a Christian. When you become a Christian, that's what you now have. Let's look at Romans 7, 21 through 25. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God and my inner being, but I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. All of us, if you're a Christian, if you have placed your faith in Christ for your salvation, you will feel the tension between your sinful desires and your desire to obey God. That is normal. That is a normal, everyday part of being a Christian. The struggle is not a sign that you are not a Christian. In fact, the struggle is a sign that someone greater in you is working in you. And you can ask any of your leaders, you can ask any leader in this room, and they would be very happy to tell you and describe to you the way they feel that tug of war in their own life. The Apostle Paul felt that tug of war in his own life, which is why he wrote about it in the book of Romans. Because all of our salvation is by God's grace, your salvation is secure in him, even when that tug of war feels like it's going to tear you apart. But that is a normal part of the Christian life. Let's keep going. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. This is a short verse, some of you may have this already memorized. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new is come. If you can understand this at your age, this applies to the adults too, but if you're mainly to the students, if you can understand this now, I promise it will save you an unbelievable amount of confusion and heartbreak the older you get. Your faith is not based on your feelings. When you sin, you may feel like you're not saved, or that God is mad at you, or he doesn't love you anymore. And you may feel conviction and guilt for your sin. But if you have placed your faith in Christ, you have been transformed. You are a new creation. That is a true reality that God has spoken over you and is true regardless if you feel like it is or not. It is a true reality, even if it doesn't feel true in the moment. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When you've placed your faith in Christ for your salvation, you will want to walk in the light, even if it means having to expose your sin. Even if it means confessing something that is painful or embarrassing or uncomfortable, you will have a desire to do that because that is the Spirit at work in you. And we can do this because God promises to forgive us when we confess our sins and to be cleansed, not by the basis of our confession, but because the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse us from all our sins. Not something you did, not something you're responsible for, but something that somebody else did that is now given to you for your benefit. And if you're a Christian, that's something you're going to want to do. You're not going to want to keep your sin in the dark because you know it kills you. You know it makes you miserable. You know it makes you suffer. And you want to bring it into the light because you know that in the light is where true freedom and joy is found, and it's not found in sin. So now to back to our destination. How can we be saved? Only by faith in Jesus Christ and in his substitutionary atoning death on the cross. So even though we are guilty of having disobeyed God and are still inclined to all evil, nevertheless, God, without any merit of our own, but only by pure grace, imputes to us, which means credits to us, applies to us, the perfect righteousness of Christ when we repent and believe in him. And again, let this brilliant insight from Charles Spurgeon be something that brings you comfort. My hope does not live because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ died. My trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy. He is my righteousness. My faith does not rest upon what I am or shall be or feel or know, but in what Christ is and what he has done and in what he is now doing for me. That is what it means to have faith in Christ. It is not faith in yourself, faith in anything you can done or have done, faith in that Jesus has done everything for you.