Soteriology-Emily Pritchard
What is the Gospel?
What does a person need to know in order to be saved?
Gospel
1st Corinthians 15:1-7
Christ rose from the dead
Jesus was buried
Appeared to 500 witnesses at one time
Christ died for sins
Foundational Knowledge
This is informations is needed to understand the gospel
i.e. Jesus' divinity and humanity
i.e. What is sin?
Eternal Security
Unbiblical ways to evaluate our eternal security
Our emotions
This is not technically need for the gospel but it provides context to the gospel narrative
What are the issues in soteriology
What does a person do to be saved?
Can you lose your salvation?
What is the gospel?
What are the biblical terms that explain our salvation?
How does a believer live in God's grace?
What does a person need to do in order to be saved? (How to have salvation)
Confusing Terminology
I accepted Jesus as my savior
I prayed the prayer
Give everything to Jesus
Lay you burden at the foot of the cross
Let Jesus into you heart
Scripture tells us to exercise faith
used 100x in John
the definition of faith demand an object
faith that is valuable before God is faith in the person of God and his word
faith that is worthless or invaluable has as its object something other that God or his word
to believe, trust or rely on
Faith is a simple, human response
involves human will
The Salvation Diamond
What kind of actions do we think with remove our salvation?
Claiming to not believe in God
Deny Jesus is God or that he died for your sins(i.e. apostasy)
Certain terrible sins
What does the scripture say about or salvation
If believe in Jesus' work, you have eternal life
We are secured by Jesus
Romans 8:31-39 - nothing can separate believers form the love of god
Why is sin not mentioned in Paul's list? Because Jesus already took them away
neither angels, nor powers
neither past, nor the future
John 6:37-40 - promises to never leave the ones who are his
John 6:47- Belief = Eternity
John 5:24- belief = death-> life
We are sealed by the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 4:30
"seal" refers to preservation and ownership
Ephesians 1:13-14
Our good works
Just like citizenship is not based on emotion, neither is out heavenly citizenship
Not a condition to being saved
Examining our good works, or lack thereof, is to look at the wrong person for our salvation: us and not Jesus
Not a condition to being saved
Second Facet: Adoption
Third Facet: Redemption
First Facet: Justification
Fourth Facet: Sanctification
Just as a diamond has many facets, so does a person's salvation has many aspects to describe it
There are many words to describe it such as propitiation, adoption, and union in Christ
Definition: to be declared righteous
Illustration: The Courtroom
Key passages: Romans 3:21-31 and Galatians 2:15
Characters:
Prosecution is God's Law
Defendant is humanity
God is the judge
Defense is Christ
Action
2- The defense does not defend us as he agrees with the charges against us
1- the prosecution reads out our transgressions
3- He offers to take our punishment for us
4- He requests that the right standing he holds with the court be given to us
5- The judge considers then gives the Defense our punishment
6- We leave the court declared righteous
We are not innocent
We are not made righteous
we are pronounced Righteous
Justification is available for all those who believe
By grace and faith, not law
It is a free gift from God
There is no "fine print"
This gives us no right to boast, as it was undeserving
good works do not earn justification
only faith in the death for our sins justifies is
Results
We have bold access to grace
Create humility before God and others
Jesus takes condemnation and we are lawfully righteous
Definition:
Benefits:
the act of where he places believers into his family
As God's children, we have unhindered access to God
We are in community with many other siblings
We are considered his children and we can call Him "Abba" father
God disciplines us, we are not abandoned
Never let sin block you from God
We are always able to call upon him for help
the concept of discipline is closely related to training
God only trains his legitimate children
It is for our own good
We can grow in holiness through discipline
Definition:
to purchase sinners out of the slave market of sin
The scripture speaks of people being slaves to sin and the Devil
OT: The jews lead our of the red sea was a common example of redemption
Even as believers, we can live in captivity to sin/slaves to sin
People who sin are slaves to sin
Our redemption means that sin is not our master anymore
Believers are free from sin, or dead to sin
one day, our bodies will be redeemed form sin
Viewed in three phases:
There are two aspects of our sanctification:
Definiton:
A process where we work with God to live according to the spirit and to have our behavior become more Christ-like
the word comes from the greek word " to be holy or set apart"
the ideas is to be set apart from sin and set apart to God
Present: we are viewed in the process of being sanctified
Future: Hope for future complete sanctification
Past: we are viewed as sanctified
Jesus in the Father, the Father in Jesus
First Aspect: Identification with Jesus
Second Aspect: Jesus' life in the believer via the Holy spirit
Characteristics:
What is true of Jesus is true of us
All those who have believed in the Gospel are identified in Christ
What dies this mean practically
Ephesians 1:13-14
This is like being gin a club
blessed with all the spiritual blessings
holy and blameless before God
Not condemned any more
given all things that pertain to life and godliness
citizens of heaven
we are dearly loved
freed from the authority of sin
we should see ourselves from God's view as identified with Jesus; this is our true identity in God
we should view other believers from God's perspective as identified with Jesus
we should not try and earn our identity
We don't work for this identity
Paul recognizes that he has both the old nature (i.e. the flesh)and the new nature (a desire to please God)
Paul also recognizes the he needs the Holy Spirit to produce the characteristics of Jesus through him
Paul describes the struggle he experiences when he desires to do good but finds that sin is right there with him
To "walk according to the spirit" means for a christian to fail live his/her life in dependance upon the HS to produce the character of Christ in him/her
Illustration: remember the image of the tree and the roots: sin produces sins in both believers and unbelivers
Romans 8:14
Colossians 1:27-29
John 15:1-8
Galatians 2:20
Galatians 5:16-26
Christ in Us, We are in Christ