Salvation: Past, Present, Future.

Salvation: Past. Present, Future.

Romans 6: 15 – 23.

I. Introduction.

In 1997, I graduated as a member of the first graduating class from George W. Truett Seminary at Baylor University. I was serving as a college minister in Waco, but felt that God was leading me to become a pastor. I had two churches in Texas that showed an interest in me, but neither church worked out. Both committees came to Waco to hear me preach and sat down with Shauna and me for a formal interview.

A search committee member from one of those churches told one of my references, “He’s only 27 years old…But he looks even younger than that.” They ended up calling a pastor who looked older than me.

When we were in the interview with that same church, another member of the search committee made a profound statement that has stayed with me for the past ten years. I still like to use this man’s words. We were talking about the role of discipleship in Baptist churches. He said, “It seems to me that Baptists are good obstetricians but poor pediatricians.”

I know ya’ll are intelligent folks, and I do not want to insult your intelligence. But I do want to explain what that statement means to me.

An obstetrician is the doctor who is responsible for delivering babies. The pediatrician is the doctor who is responsible for caring for those babies as they grow into adults. If we apply that statement to Baptists, then we can say that we are very good at “birthing babies,” but we are not very good at helping babies grow into mature adults. We love to preach the Gospel and lead lost people to a saving faith in Jesus as Lord. But we are not very good at helping new, baby Christians grow into mature, adult Christians.

Many of you may have grown up in the same church I grew up in. I grew up in the West Jackson Street Baptist Church in Tupelo, Mississippi. I don’t think any of you grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi, but see if this sounds familiar to you… I remember two pastors in my home church, but I only remember one sermon. Both pastors seemed to preach about the same thing week in and week out. They preached about how all human beings are sinners who cannot save ourselves. Our sin has separated us from a holy God who earnestly desires to have a personal relationship with us. God loved us so much that he sent his “only begotten Son” to live a sinless, perfect life and to die on the cross for our sins. Any person—man, woman or child—who believes that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross for our sins and confesses Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior will be saved. That is the Gospel.

As a result of hearing that sermon every week, I became a Christian when I was nine years old. I met with the pastor in his office one afternoon and was baptized a short time after that.
I suppose I am a slow learner. Because it took me nine years to start wondering what I am supposed to do next. When I was eighteen years old, I started feeling like there was something else. Sure, I’m a Christian…But what do I do now?

Let’s use our imaginations for a few minutes and imagine what would happen if everyone in this room had stopped growing physically, emotionally and mentally when we were nine years old. What would our lives look like if we were all nine years old? We probably would not have jobs or cars or homes, and we definitely would not have credit card debt or mortgages. We would spend our days riding our bicycles and playing baseball or making “mud pies” in the backyard. I also think we would walk around mumbling, “I’m bored. Can we go somewhere or do something fun?”

Or what about this?... As you know, we have a two year old daughter. Do you remember when your children were two? When JoEllen doesn’t get exactly what she wants, she throws herself down in the floor and starts screaming… “NOOOO! I didn’t want you to cut my sandwich.” A lot of times, when she does that, Shauna and I look at her and ask, “What if Mommy and Daddy screamed and rolled around in the floor when we didn’t get what we wanted?” That’s a ridiculous thought. Two year olds are supposed to act like two year olds. But adults are not supposed to act like two year olds.

It is unthinkable for a person to remain two years old or nine years old for the rest of their lives. But I think we have people in our churches who are just that. We have 30, 40, 50 and 60 year olds who are still nine years old spiritually. Our problem is the way we think of salvation. We have a very narrow view of salvation as a “one time event” that happens the moment that we express faith in Jesus as Lord. We seem to overlook the fact that the Bible tells us our salvation is more than this. Salvation does happen as a “one time event,” but it also has an ongoing effect as well as a future result.

Consider the following statements: I have been saved. I am being saved. I will be saved. All three of these statements are true statements for anyone who has become a Christian. I have been saved. For me there was a time, when I first trusted Christ as Lord as a nine year old boy. I am being saved. God is not through working on me. I am not perfect. I still have things I have to deal with, so God is constantly and continually forming me to become more like Jesus. I will be saved. There is coming a day, when I will die or Jesus will return. At this point in the future, I will enter into heaven and realize the result, or fulfillment, of what happened to me when I was saved as a nine year old.

Read Romans 6: 15 – 23

II. I Have Been Saved.

If we are going to talk about salvation this morning, then we need to begin by describing why salvation is even necessary. In other words, in order to be saved, we must be saved from something.

While the Greek word for “saved” does not appear in our Scripture reading this morning, the concept is there. Instead, Paul uses a term that we translate “set free.” In this passage, Paul draws a mental image of a slave who has been purchased out of slavery to live as a free person. The technical term for this type of slave transaction is “Redemption.”

The New Testament uses a wide range of words and images to describe what we commonly call “salvation.” The one I grew up hearing more about is the term “born again” from the Gospel of John. The technical term is “Regeneration.” The image of being “born again” or regenerated is that when we are saved we begin living a new life. Other places in the New Testament describe salvation as “Reconciliation.” The image is of two people in a broken relationship who have been restored and are back together again. Another common image is of “Justification.” Justification is something that happens in a court room when the judge declares the accused person “not guilty.” Then there is also the image of “Victory.” All human beings have a common enemy known as death. But through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we have victory over death.

There are some people who choose one description of salvation and ignore all the others. However, all of these show up in the Bible and provide a limited view of what it means to be saved. The reason why these descriptions are limited is that each one focuses on one aspect of our human predicament. For example, if we describe our predicament as guilt, then we need God to declare us “not guilty,” to Justify. If we describe our problem as slavery, then we need to be “purchased,” or Redeemed. If the problem is a broken relationship with God, then we need to be Reconciled. And if the problem is death, then we need Victory over death.
Each of these images contains a portion of what it means to be saved. They do not happen in stages. No. Each of these will be accomplished once and for all at the moment we place our faith in Jesus.

I want to emphasize two things at this point. First, we cannot save ourselves. We must place our faith in Jesus to save us. There is no New Testament teaching that salvation is something we can achieve or earn based on our own worthiness. It only happens through faith in Jesus.

Second, I want to emphasize that we must be saved from “something.” This is where I always begin when I am talking with someone about becoming a Christian. I started this about ten years ago after reading an article in the Baptist Standard. The article was a discussion about when a child is ready to become a Christian and to be baptized. One expert quoted in the article was a child psychologist. She said that there is no age restriction for salvation and baptism. Instead, we must determine if a child understands the concept of sin. If you do not know what sin is, you cannot be saved. If you know what sin is, but think that you are not guilty of sin, then you cannot be saved.

In order to be saved, we must understand the predicament we are in. We must acknowledge that we cannot solve our sin problem on our own abilities. We must place our faith in Jesus.

III. I Am Being Saved.

The second aspect of salvation can be described in the present tense: “I am being saved.” At this point, we are not speaking of salvation as a one time event in the past. We now speak of salvation as a present reality, or a process, which takes place in the present time. It is ongoing, and it is never finished. The theological term for salvation in the present tense is “Sanctification.”

Paul uses the term “Sanctification” in verse 22, but it is translated differently in the NIV. The NIV uses the English word “holiness.” This is a fine interpretation of Paul’s words here, because Sanctification and holiness mean the same thing. The English word Sanctification comes to us from the Latin word for Holiness. A literal understanding of Sanctification would be “the process of becoming holy.”

Once again, let me stress that salvation is not something you can do for yourselves. As human beings, you and I are wholly incapable of saving ourselves, and this includes the process of Sanctification. We cannot make ourselves holy, as Jesus is holy. But God can. And God will. This is what God wants to do in each of our lives.

If your testimony is like mine—I became a Christian when I was nine years old—then God does not want you to remain a nine year old for the rest of your life. God wants you to grow…Grow in your understanding of God…Grow in holiness…And grow in the amount of control you hand over to God on a daily basis.

When Paul used the term Sanctification, or holiness, in verse 22, he described it as the result, or fruit, of something else: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit (result, fruit) you reap leads to holiness…”

I cannot tell you what specific plans God might have for the rest of your life. But I can tell you one thing…It is God’s will to Sanctify you and make you Holy as Jesus is Holy. You cannot make yourselves holy, but you can prevent God from doing the work he plans for you.

The process of Sanctification begins in us at the moment we place our faith in Jesus. At the moment of faith, God places his Holy Spirit in us. God is one. God is inseparable. We do not receive God in stages. At the moment of faith, we receive Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And at that moment, the Holy Spirit begins his work in us gradually, continually making us Holy as Jesus is Holy.

This process of Sanctification is a daily struggle. Since we are human beings, who are prone to sin, we often find ourselves at odds with what the Holy Spirit is trying to accomplish. Since we live in a fallen world, which is filled with temptation and sin, we often find ourselves struggling with the day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute decisions. We struggle with our daily, hourly, minute by minute decisions. Will I choose to follow my selfish and sinful desires? Or will I surrender myself to the work of the Holy Spirit within me?

The reason for our struggle is our divided allegiance. Once again, Paul uses the imagery of slavery…verse 22… “Slaves to God.” When we were slaves to sin, sin controlled everything we did. Now that we are slaves to God, God should control all we do.

I cannot save myself or make myself holy, but I can prevent the Holy Spirit from growing me into a mature adult Christian, rather than a nine year old Christian in an adult body.

IV. I Will Be Saved.

The third aspect of salvation can be described by using the future tense: “I will be saved.” This is the part of salvation which will not be fully realized until we are with God in Heaven. The technical term for this is “Glorification.”

Again, verse 22 describes all three aspects of salvation: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life.”

There is coming a day when life as we now know it will end. Every human being will die, or will be living when Jesus returns to bring this world to an end. When the world comes to an end, there are two options for us. One, there is eternal death in Hell—forever separated from God. Two, there is eternal life in heaven—forever living in the presence of God.

When I say that this world is coming to an end, please don’t think I have given up hope. NO! The Christian life is a life based on hope. When Jesus rose from the grave, he gave us the hope that we too can live forever. One day all Christians will be with Jesus in Heaven. Until that day, we are not to neglect or ignore the world we live in.

V. Conclusion.

A couple of months ago, I met with a family from our church to talk with the son about baptism. The parents had shared with him how he could be saved, and he had placed his faith in Jesus. At the end of our conversation, the parents asked me if he was ready to be baptized. Now, this is a very serious question. Like I said earlier, I always make sure children understand sin and why it is necessary to be saved. I do not want to pressure a child into baptism before he or she truly understands what they are doing.

I looked at the boy and asked him a question: “How old are you?” He said ten. I asked, “How much are you supposed to understand as a ten year old?” He said, “A little bit.” I asked, “How much are you supposed to understand when you are 15?” He said, “A little bit more.” I asked, “How much are you supposed to understand when you are 40?” He said, “A little bit more.”

That is exactly right. It reminds me of what Joel Gregory used to say when he was pastor in Dallas. When a child came forward to make a profession of faith, he would introduce them to the church by saying, “This is Andy. Andy is making his first step as a Christian today.”