Day 3 of the 22 Day Salvation Study
Notes compiled by Steve McAtee and Marty Zide
Questions to be Covered
Why does a person need to be saved? What is their condition that necessitates salvation?
Before one can be saved, he must be made aware of his spiritual need before God. Only when they see their sin and themselves as God sees them, are they ready to respond to the gospel. The Word sums up our needs.
Rom. 3:9-18 - What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God;All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one. Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving, The poison of asps is under their lips; Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Rom. 5:6 For while we were still helpless Rom. 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us.
Rom. 5:10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Man needs to be saved for various reasons. Here are some of the reasons that are clearly taught in Scripture. We are:
Sinners By Birth & Practice
We are all born lost in sin because of Adam’s disobedience. The entire human race was drastically affected when he disobeyed God. Adam was the representative of all mankind when he was in the garden. Since his fall we are born in his likeness.
Rom. 5:12,18 - Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned-- So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
Gen. 5:3 When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
1 Cor. 15:22 - For as in Adam all die, so also in Messiah all shall be made alive. It is true that even fallen man still bears the image and likeness of God. However, it has been marred as a result of sin. When a person gets saved the image that was marred begins a renewal process back into the image of God
Col. 3:9-10 - Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him
Not only are we sinful as a result of being in Adam, but we are sinful because of our personal sins that we all commit. There has only been one person who lived a totally perfect life, who never sinned while on earth and that was Jesus the Messiah.
1 Pet. 2:21-22 - For you have been called for this purpose, since Messiah also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;
Col. 3:5,7 - Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. And in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
Rom. 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Rom. 6:20 - For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Titus 3:3 - For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.
In Debt to God Because of Our Sins
Every sin that’s committed creates a debt with God. That sin debt needs to be paid. There are only two ways in which the debt can be paid. Either we try to pay it ourselves, or we accept the payment that God made. There are no other choices.
Col. 2:13-14 -And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
God graciously made the payment for our sins through the death of Jesus the Messiah. All other forms or attempts of payment for sin is not acceptable to God.
Helpless to correct our condition
There is absolutely nothing we can do about the desperate situation we are in. We are helpless and therefore dependent upon someone else to provide a way of deliverance. Spiritually speaking we are powerless to do what is necessary to obtain forgiveness.
Helpless:
“Unable to tend to one’s own needs, unable to act at will, lacking all help” Does that sound like we are in a hopeless situation? We are, except for the grace of God!
Rom. 5:6 - For while we were still helpless, at the right time the Messiah died for the ungodly.
Rom. 5:8 - But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, the Messiah died for us.
Rom. 5:10 - For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Condemned by God
All of mankind stands condemned before a holy and righteous God. This is the result of being born a sinner as well as committing personal sin.
It involves the thought of being reckoned or accounted guilty before the one and only God who is holy. Before one is forgiven through the Messiah they are in a state of condemnation.
James 2:10 - For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
John 3:18 - He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Rom. 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Jesus.
Spiritually dead
All of mankind is born spiritually dead. We are dead toward the things of God, but very much alive when it comes to the things that God opposes.
Eph. 2:1-3 - And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Col. 2:13 - And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,
John 5:24 - “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
Spiritual death is the separation of a person from God. Our sins have separated us from Him.
As such we are not able to respond to spiritual matters.
1 Cor. 2:14 - But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
Rom. 8:6-7 - For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;
We are born slaves of sin
Sin has an enslaving power to it. One sin leads to another sin. Sometimes sin is required to cover another sin that was committed. David covered his adultery with murder. The longer sin goes on the harder it is to escape it.
Rom. 6:17 - But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
Rom. 8:2 - For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
We are born lost in sin
When one understands that they are lost, there are certain emotions that come to the surface. We have all heard a child screaming in a store because they thought their parents left them there. Unfortunately, we are oblivious to our lost condition.
To be lost means we cannot find our way to where we are going. In this case, it is heaven. We cannot find our way there. Fortunately, Jesus is seeking the lost in order to bring them salvation. He is the initiator. Left to ourselves, we would not seek Him.
Matt. 10:6 - but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Luke 19:10 - “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
Our need for salvation is great. Even after we experience true salvation, it often takes years for us to realize how bad off we were and just how much we needed to be saved.
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