School of the Foundations of the Christian Faith “The Creator and His Creation.” Lesson 21. The Work of Salvation. The school consists of 22 lessons. The founder of the school is the Christian Bible Institute.
In the previous lesson, we talked about the new birth as a necessary condition for a person’s salvation. Today we will learn how salvation works in a person’s life.
We will begin our lesson with the story of Josiah, the king of Judah, who ruled the country from 609 to 640 BC. This story is recorded in the Bible in 2 Kings 22–23.
Many years before Josiah became king, the country was ruled by his grandfather Manasseh, who was a very evil man who did not fear God. He reigned for 55 years and caused his people much suffering. He forbade the reading of God’s Law in the temple because the Bible condemned his sinful way of life. During his reign, the people forgot the living God and began worshiping idols, the sun, the moon, and the stars. Because the people did not have God in their hearts, they began to do much evil. Therefore, God became angry with the entire nation. After Manasseh’s death, his son Amon became king. Like his father, he did not fear God and did much evil. After two years, his servants conspired against him and killed him. His eight-year-old son Josiah became king.
Josiah was an extraordinary boy. At the age of 16, he began seeking the Lord. But he did not have the Bible, and therefore did not know what God required of him. All he knew was that people had once worshiped the living God in the temple. So he decided to restore the temple. During the restoration work, the Book of the Law of God was discovered in a hidden place. Why had the Book of the Law been hidden? Because during the days of the ungodly King Manasseh, the priests were afraid to teach the people God’s law. They were afraid of angering the king and the people, who worshiped idols and had forgotten the living God. The Book of the Law changed King Josiah’s heart. He read the Ten Commandments and all the rules and prohibitions that God had given Israel before they entered the Promised Land. King Josiah took the Book of the Law very seriously. He realized that he was a sinner in God’s eyes because he was not doing what the Lord required of him.
The Bible explains very simply what is good and evil. Whatever God has called good is good, and whatever God has called evil is evil. The Bible reveals God’s righteousness to us. And if we want to have God’s righteousness, we need to take the Bible seriously and learn to live according to it.
King Josiah is a good example for us. He heard the Word of God, took it very seriously, and decided to live as the Bible teaches. He repented before God, then gathered all the priests and elders and declared that the entire people should repent and live according to God’s commandments. Significant reforms were carried out throughout the country. All the altars on which people offered sacrifices to idols were destroyed. Pagan priests were driven out of the country. Worship and the reading of the law in the temple were restored. The Book of the Law that had been found changed the course of life for the entire country. But God’s anger over the insult committed against Him did not pass. Why? Because God saw the people’s hearts. He saw that they had not truly repented. They did not have righteousness.
Righteousness begins with a change in a person's heart
God said: 2 Chronicles 7:14 then, if My people, who are called by My Name, humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
Unfortunately, we see no evidence that the people's hearts were broken and humbled before God during Josiah's reign. Most of the changes took place as a result of the king's own actions. He traveled throughout the country, and under his supervision, altars and places of idol worship were destroyed. The instructions about what to do came from above, and the people were forced to submit to the authorities because that was the king's command. (2 Chronicles 34:32–33)
But when the king died, everything returned to the way it had been. The people began doing evil in the sight of God and stopped living according to His statutes.
The prophet Jeremiah points to the reason for the limited success of Josiah's reforms:
Jeremiah 3:10 Despite all this, Judah, the faithless sister of Israel, returned to Me not with all her heart, but only in pretense, declares the Lord.
When Josiah tried to bring about changes in the nation through political power, the people submitted to him under cultural and social pressure, but their hearts did not change. Therefore, as soon as a new king came, the people immediately began adapting to his opinion.
The Promise of Righteousness
Several years after Josiah's death, God again spoke to the people through the prophet Jeremiah, who lived in Judah during King Josiah's reign and witnessed all the changes taking place in the country. Through Jeremiah, God gives a wonderful promise to establish a new order in His relationship with humanity. He called this new order the New Covenant.
Jeremiah 31:31 — The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Jeremiah 31:32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant, although I was their husband, declares the Lord. — Jeremiah 31:33 Therefore, in the future I will make this covenant with the house of Israel, declares the Lord. — I will put My Law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.
This was the beginning of something new, something the prophets could not understand. Rulers can enact laws, but they cannot make those laws part of people's way of thinking. They can demand that God's law be obeyed, but they cannot write it on people's hearts. But now God promises to put His law in people's hearts and minds. God promises to change people's consciousness to such an extent that they will think according to the standards of God's law. God will change people's hearts so that they will desire to do what God commands. They will have a longing for the righteousness of God. How can this happen? Only through Jesus Christ.
Salvation Through Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ came into the world 600 years after King Josiah. Like Josiah, He was of the house and lineage of David.
Shortly before His death, during the farewell meal with His disciples, Jesus lifted a cup of wine and said:
Luke 22:20 He also took the cup after supper and said: “This cup is the New Covenant, sealed with My blood, which is poured out for you.”
He was speaking about the New Covenant that God had promised through Jeremiah. He spoke of an inner change in our thinking and feelings. Then He went to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He was arrested and crucified the next day. On the third day, He rose again.
The risen King Jesus Christ invites us to come to Him just as we are. When we come to Him, He gives us His righteousness. These are the promises of the New Covenant. When the Spirit of God comes to dwell in you, He gives you new desires and the ability to live in a manner worthy of God. Therefore, Christians love God and seek His righteousness. This is why people born of God cannot remain in sin.
The Work of Salvation
The Bible says that salvation begins when the Holy Spirit convicts a person of sin. Shortly before His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ said the following about the ministry of the Holy Spirit:
John 16:8 When He comes, He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment: John 16:9 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; John 16:10 of righteousness, because I am returning to My Father, and you will no longer see Me; John 16:11 of judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
In this passage, Jesus clearly says that one of the Holy Spirit’s first tasks is to convict people of their sinfulness before God. Fallen humanity needs a work from above in order to see itself as guilty before God. Although people commit many different sins, the Holy Spirit convicts them first and foremost of the main sin from which all the others arise. This sin is unbelief. Jesus Christ said that the Holy Spirit convicts a person first and foremost “of sin, because they do not believe in Me.”
The new birth is possible only when a person, in brokenness, acknowledges that they are a sinner who has rebelled against God and turns to Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, acknowledging Him as their Lord.
A Person’s Repentance
The human side of repentance can be very well illustrated by the story of the prodigal son, which Jesus Christ once told. Please read this story carefully in Luke 15:12–24.
The story begins with a young man who, thinking he can arrange his life better by being independent of his father, takes what he believes belongs to him and leaves home to seek happiness.
Awareness of Sin
The first important step of repentance is awareness of sin. When the prodigal son left his father, he saw his happiness not in his father’s house, but in the world toward which he rushed with all his energy.
At first, he had money and friends. He thought he would find happiness in them. His imagination painted beautiful pictures of the pleasures he could enjoy in a world of independence from his father. But, as usually happens, as soon as a person achieves what he has pursued for so long, he becomes disappointed in it.
The prodigal son’s journey in search of happiness ended in disappointment with life. He entered a crisis. He lost his wealth. When the money was gone, all his friends disappeared. Then he lost his job. The country’s economic decline forced him to seek food by working as a swineherd. This continued until the prodigal son became completely disillusioned.
One day, as he sat beside the trough, the prodigal son suddenly realized that the happiness he had pursued so eagerly was actually in his father’s house. He suddenly recognized his complete defeat and his guilt before his father:
Luke 15:17 When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough food, while I am dying here of hunger! Luke 15:18 I will go back to my father and say to him: ‘Father! I have sinned against Heaven and against you. Luke 15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.’”
Awareness of one’s guilt before God is a very important step with which revival begins. Repentance means turning one’s life in the opposite direction. It begins with a change in one’s inner attitude toward God.
Before repentance, a person runs after the illusion of happiness that he sees apart from God. During repentance, a person turns to face God and realizes that all his happiness is found only in Jesus Christ. He acknowledges that life without God is meaningless and takes concrete steps to move toward Him.
Repentance is the most important event in a person’s life. Through repentance, a person acknowledges the reality that without God he is heading toward final destruction. The apostle Paul, emphasizing the importance of repentance, simply pleads with everyone to be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:19 In other words, God was reconciling the world to Himself through Christ, not counting people’s sins against them, and He entrusted us with the message of this reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:20 Therefore, we are Christ’s representatives, as God speaks through us. So we plead with you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God.
Confession of Sin
Awareness of sin is the first step of repentance. Nevertheless, true repentance necessarily includes not only an inner awareness of one’s guilt before God, but also an open acknowledgment of one’s need for the Savior and confession of His Lordship.
The prodigal son’s life would not have changed much if he had merely changed his opinion of his father, but had never gotten up, gone to his father, and acknowledged his guilt before him.
For a person experiencing repentance, their relationship with God takes on the greatest importance. They are not ashamed to acknowledge their faith before other people. They are no longer ashamed to acknowledge their need for the Savior; on the contrary, they desire everyone around them to see that they bow before the absolute greatness of God, who revealed salvation to them in Jesus Christ.
Rom. 10:9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Rom. 10:10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Rom. 10:11 Scripture says: “Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.”
That is why repentance includes openly confessing one’s sin and acknowledging our need for the Savior.
A person can repent anywhere (Jonah repented in the belly of the whale), but if repentance has truly taken place, a born-again person will never be ashamed of their Savior by hiding what happened from others. They will tell their relatives, acquaintances, and friends about it. They will seek fellowship with others like themselves—born-again people.
Acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Lord of one’s life
Another important element of repentance is acknowledging Jesus Christ as one’s Lord. When the Apostles were asked, “What must we do to be saved?” they replied:
Acts 16:31 – Believe in the Lord Jesus, they replied, and you will be saved—you and your household.
Salvation becomes available to a person only when they acknowledge their complete bankruptcy and Christ’s complete Lordship.
Repentance restores a person to a state of harmonious relationship with God. This means that a person acknowledges God’s absolute position as the Creator of the universe and is reconciled to God by accepting in faith the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ and entrusting their life to Him.
The Practical Outworking of Salvation
Salvation, made possible through Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice, is manifested practically in a person’s life when, in humility, they receive the Gospel with their heart.
When a person humbles themselves before God, recognizing their absolute sinfulness and need for a Savior, entrusting their heart and life to Christ and accepting His lordship over them, the Spirit of God brings their dead spirit to life and, joining with it, creates a new person with a new nature.
Recognizing Jesus Christ as the Lord of one’s life means the beginning of serious changes in our lives.
A born-again person develops an inner desire to submit to Jesus Christ always and in everything. This desire is the foundation of the process of sanctification, which we will discuss later.
Jeremiah 31:31 — The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Jeremiah 31:32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant, although I was their husband, declares the Lord. — Jeremiah 31:33 Therefore, in the future I will make this covenant with the house of Israel, declares the Lord. — I will put My Law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.
A born-again person recognizes the absolute greatness of Christ’s person and therefore strives to become like their Savior and Lord.
Philippians 3:7 But whatever I once considered a gain, I now consider a loss for the sake of Christ. Philippians 3:8 Not only that, but I consider everything else a loss compared with the priceless knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ. For His sake, I have come to regard everything else in the world as refuse, and I have cast it all aside in order to gain Christ, Philippians 3:9 in order to be found in Him, not with my own righteousness from the Law, but with righteousness through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God through faith. Philippians 3:10 I want to know Christ and the power that raised Him from the dead; I want to share in His sufferings and become like Him in His death.
A born-again person recognizes that Christ, and Christ alone, has the right to determine what is right and wrong, what is good and evil. Therefore, they build their life according to what Christ says in His Word, recognizing the absolute authority and truth of His Word.
John 17:17 Sanctify them by Your truth: Your word is truth.
Recognizing Jesus Christ as the Lord of one’s life means that a born-again person hates sin. Living on an earth afflicted by sin, a born-again person sometimes finds themselves in situations where they sin. But in all such cases, a true Christian is always distinguished by the fact that they cannot remain in sin. A born-again person will necessarily repent and rise again to follow Christ.
1 John 3:9 Everyone born of God does not love sin, because God’s seed remains in them. They cannot live a sinful life, because they have been born of God.
Review Questions:
- Many people in the days of King Josiah tried to live rightly. Why, then, did God continue to be angry with them?
- What is the righteousness of Christ?
- Where does salvation begin?
- What changes in a person’s life after repentance?
- Can a person born of God live continually in sin?
Source: Christian Bible Institute
