What Does It Really Mean to Be “Saved”? (A Study of Galatians 1:3-5) Part 5

This is our last post on the topic “What does it really mean to be saved?” We are looking at the first few verses of Galatians 1 where Paul writes: “3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

We’ve seen four of the five truths which jump out at me that speak to this issue of being saved. The first truth is we are at peace with God! (v. 3). The second truth in this text about being saved is we have been paid for (v. 4)! Jesus paid that debt for us. The third truth in this text about being saved is — we have been rescued! Jesus gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.  The fourth truth about being saved which I see in this text is that we are wanted by God! Verse 4 says that Jesus’ giving of Himself was “according to the will of our God and Father.” It was the Father’s will to save us, to redeem us, to rescue us! This is what HE wants! We have been wanted!

The fifth and final truth I see in this text about being saved is:  We have an eternal purpose! (v. 5).   There we read, “to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”  Let’s not gloss over those words.  We have been invited into a relationship with the God of the universe and our highest goal is to praise Him!

“But, wait a minute!”, some might say!  “Isn’t it awfully conceited and self-serving for God to want us to worship Him — eternally?   That sounds like the pagan gods who demanded the kind of worship that sometimes included the sacrificing of their own children on the worship altar!”

Here I believe J.I. Packer helps us when he writes:  “If it is right for man to have the glory of God as his goal, can it be wrong for God to aim at the same goal? If man can have no higher end and motive than God’s glory, how can God? And if it is wrong for man to seek a lesser end than this, then it would be wrong for God too. The reason why it cannot be right for man to live for himself, as if he were God, is simply the fact that he is not God; and the reason why it cannot be wrong for God to seek His own glory is simply the fact that He is God. Those who would not have God seek His glory in all things are really asking that He should cease to be God. And there is no greater blasphemy than to will God out of existence.” (The Plan of God)

To give us that eternal purpose required the Father to sacrifice HIS Son!  May I boldly suggest that you read over that profound quote from Packer again?  Slowly.  And then thank the true God of the universe that you have been made exactly for this!

 

 

 

What Does It Really Mean to Be “Saved”? (A Study of Galatians 1:3-5) Part 4

What does it really mean to be saved? We are looking at the first few verses of Galatians 1 where Paul writes: “3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

There are five truths which jump out at me that speak to this issue of being saved. The first truth is we are at peace with God! (v. 3). The second truth in this text about being saved is we have been paid for (v. 4)! Jesus paid that debt for us. The third truth in this text about being saved is — we have been rescued! Jesus gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.

The fourth truth about being saved which I see in this text is that we are wanted by God!  Verse 4 says that Jesus’ giving of Himself was “according to the will of our God and Father.”  It was the Father’s will to save us, to redeem us, to rescue us!  This is what HE wants!  We have been wanted!

But in Jesus we are not criminals whose picture is on a wanted poster in the post office!  Our sins have been taken care of by the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God for our sins!  Friend, you are wanted by God because He loves you!  And that’s part of what it means to be saved!

Whatever God wants, God gets, right?   Theologians have battled for centuries over God’s sovereignty and man’s free will.  While I’m fairly familiar with that discussion, the impression I get from Scripture is that we choose not to want God back!  How awful.

This is a picture of our grandson Jeremiah.  Jay is the sweetest boy — but when his mommie is around (our daughter Amy), he wants to cling to her.  If Grammie (my wife) tries to pick him up, he says, “NOT CHU!” (= “not YOU!”).  Hmmm.  How often do we say to the Lord without using worbs, “NOT CHU!”?

 

 

 

 

What Does It Really Mean to Be “Saved”? (A Study of Galatians 1:3-5) Part 3b

We’re asking the question, what does it mean to be saved?  And we are looking at the first few verses of Galatians 1 where Paul writes: “3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Five truths jump out at me which I think help explain salvation from this passage. The first truth is we are at peace with God! (v. 3). The second truth in this text about being saved is we have been paid for (v. 4)! Jesus “gave himself for our sins”! Our sins separated us from a holy God. Jesus paid that debt for us.  The third truth in this text about being saved is — we have been rescued! Jesus gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.  We want to focus a bit more this morning on that truth that Jesus “rescues us from the present evil age.”

We live in an evil age, right?  I get news updates on my phone about this broken world.   Here’s one i got the other day.

Great way to start your day, huh?

We would love to be rescued from this present evil age.  But how does the Lord do that?  He does that by saving us out of this lost and broken world.  As much as look forward to the Lord’s return, the Bible doesn’t encourage us to embrace a kind of evacuation theology.  In fact, our longing to leave this present evil age is, in some sense, in opposition to the plan He has for us while we are here on planet earth!

A homework assignment:  You’re aware that the word “cosmos” can be

Zachariah, 6 lbs, 13 oz, 18 inches, born 6/30 @ 2:17am to Amy & Thom.

translated planet, the people of the planet, or the pagan system opposing God and the things of God, right?  Read through John 17 (Jesus’ high priestly prayer for His followers), where the world “world” (cosmos) is used seventeen times and ask the following question of each occurrence of that world:  What meaning does “world” have here?  Is Jesus referring to the physical planet, the people of the planet (compare John 3:16 and I John 2:15!), or the pagan system opposing God?  It will be an eye-opening study, I promise you!

We’ve been rescued from this present evil age, not by evacuation but by redemption.  And we are to be here to join Jesus’ rescue team to find others!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Does It Really Mean to Be “Saved”? (A Study of Galatians 1:3-5) Part 2

What does it really mean to be saved? The Apostle Paul writes the following to the Galatian believers: “3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

There are five truths that jump out at me from this text. We’ve seen the first truth which is we are at peace with God! (v. 3).  The second truth in this text about being saved is we have been paid for (v. 4)! Jesus “gave himself for our sins”!  Our sins separated us from a holy God.  Jesus paid that debt for us.

The eleventh century scholar Anselm wrote a tract entitled Cur Deus Homo.  My Latin is lousy, but the translation is “Why the God-Man?” Anselm argues that we owed a debt to God that we could never pay.  Only God Himself could pay that debt.  But God didn’t owe Himself that debt.  However, out of love the Second Person of the Trinity became man specifically to pay that debt for us!  In presenting his argument Anselm dialogues with his friend named Boso (really).  At one point, Anselm says, “You have not realized how great a burden sin is.”  A discussion of Anselm’s brilliant argument is found here.

One last point from Anselm.  He says, “So, if, as I showed earlier, the heavenly kingdom must be filled with men, and if this cannot happen unless the satisfaction is made for sin — satisfaction which no one can make but God, and no one ought to make but man — then it is necessary for the God-man to make it.”  That’s precisely what Jesus did for us.  He made satisfaction for sin.  He paid the debt we could never pay.  He “gave himself for our sins.”

I heard about a motorist who took a certain toll road to work everyday.  One day he decided to pay the toll for the person behind him.  Just to be nice.  As he drove away, he noticed that the following driver was having to pay the toll collector a second time!  Infuriated, the first driver decided to confront the toll collector the next morning about charging the second driver.  The next morning, he asked, “Why did you collect a toll from that driver?  I paid his toll!”  The toll collector said, “I didn’t charge him for his car.  He volunteered and paid for the driver behind him.  And this went on for eight more cars!”

Glad that Jesus paid your toll?  Me too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Does It Really Mean to Be “Saved”? (A Study of Galatians 1:3-5) Part 1

Friends:  For the next few posts I want to look at a topic which is often misunderstood.  The topic of being saved.  The Apostle Paul writes the following to the Galatian believers:  “3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Gal. 1)

There are five truths that jump out at me from this text.  Let’s look at the first one this morning.  We are at peace with God! (v. 3).  Peace with God!?  One of Satan’s greatest lies is to help people to think that if there is a God, He must like us and be happy with us.  Or not be all that interested in us.  Seldom do people think, “I’ll bet that if there is a holy God like the Bible says, I’m in a lot of trouble!”

Scripture is clear that God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11), that we come into the world under the wrath of God (Jn. 3:36), and that it is a “dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).  Someone has said that we prefer to believe what we prefer to be true.  We prefer to believe that all is right with us and God — and the biblical picture is just the opposite.  An enemy of God?!  Yes!  That’s what the Bible says.  “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Rom. 5:10).

In Jesus we have “grace and peace.”  And they are not of our making.  Self-salvation is a myth.  We needed a Savior outside ourselves who could extend us grace (unmerited favor) and peace (an end of the enmity between us and God).  And that’s what Jesus did.

I understand that when a wealthy man was on his deathbed, one of his servants mustered up the courage to whisper to the man, “Sir, do you not think that you need to make peace with God?”  The rich man snorted, “What?  I never knew we argued!”  We are not naturally at peace with God. And that’s why we needed to be saved.

 

 

What Does It Mean to Be “Saved”? A Sermon Preached in Korea!

Just preached this past Sunday in Korea while teaching at Word of Life Bible Institute.  Please watch this less-than-20-minute sermon!

 

Major Themes in the Book of Galatians (Ch. 1 Part 6)

As we continue our study of the book of Galatians (which I get to teach to a group of Word of Life Korea students from June 7-16), we’re finally finishing up chapter one. Please notice one further theme of this chapter.

A sixth major theme that comes up in chapter one is that of relation-ships!

Paul makes it clear that he did not consult any human being when he was commissioned by the Lord to preach to the Gentiles (v. 16), but to focus on the Lord Himself.  He did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before he was, but went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus (the place of his conversion) (v. 17).  [An interesting study is to compare the several accounts of Paul’s conversion found in Acts 9, 22, and 26].

There is then a three-year gap about which we know virtually nothing.  He then goes up to Jerusalem to meet with Cephas and stays with him 15 days.  Of the other apostles Paul sees only James.  He then goes to Syria and Cilicia.

And thus begins a series of new relationships as this former persecutor of the church begins preaching the faith he once tried to destroy!  “And they praised God because of me.” (v. 24).  Anyone praising God because of you?

 

Major Themes in the Book of Galatians (Ch. 1 Part 5)

We’re continuing our study of the book of Galatians which I get to teach to a group of Word of Life Korea students from June 7-16. We’re still in chapter one!

Let’s notice an additional theme in this first chapter.

A fifth major theme that comes up in chapter one is God’s interrupting grace!  As the Apostle Paul reflects on his life of persecuting Christians (vv. 13-24), he uses strong language like “my previous way of life in Judaism,” “how intensely I persecuted the church of God,” and “tried to destroy it.” (v. 13).  He had made great progress in Judaism, surpassing many of his age group.  His zeal for the traditions of his fathers knew no bounds (v. 14).

Then God interrupted his life with His grace!  Set apart from his mother’s womb, Saul responded to God’s call and God was pleased “to reveal his Son in me” (v. 16). How does God reveal His Son in you?  It’s a great question to think about!

 

 

Major Themes in the Book of Galatians (Ch. 1 Part 4)

You regular readers know that I am going to teach the book of Galatians to a group of Word of Life Korea students from June 7-16. We’ve been working our way through this incredible epistle.

We are looking at the major themes of this outstanding letter. Let’s continue our thinking through chapter one.

A fourth major theme that comes up in chapter one is that of pleasing other human beings.

Paul makes it quite clear that he is not seeking to earn human approval in his ministry (v. 10).  Trying to please people — and compromising the gospel — displeases God and takes one out of the category of being a servant of Christ!

That’s a strong statement, among many strong statements in this epistle!  Let me leave you with this thought:  “It is better to please God than to please men. He’s more apt to remember!”

 

 

Major Themes in the Book of Galatians (Ch. 1 Part 3)

I’m looking forward to working with the students at Word of Life Korea from June 7-16.  I’ve been assigned the book of Galatians and we’ve been working our way through this incredible epistle.

We are looking at the major themes of this outstanding epistle.  Let’s continue our thinking through this first chapter.

A third major theme that comes up in chapter one is that of another gospel.

The Apostle is “astonished” that the Galatian believers have so quickly become spiritual deserters!  They are turning to a different gospel which is no gospel at all! (vv. 6-7).

Has it dawned on you that every religion has a gospel of some sort?  And every religion’s “gospel” is a different and false version of the true gospel.

Today, give thanks that God in His mercy has brought you to the true gospel — and to genuine forgiveness in His Son!