For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Are we unable to save ourselves? Why do we need salvation to be accomplished by God Himself?
Luke 22:14-20
When the hour had come, Jesus reclined at
the table, and the apostles with
Him. 15 And He said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer; 16 for
I say to you, I shall never again eat it until
it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 And when Jesus had taken a cup and given
thanks, He said, “Take
this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I
say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from
now on until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And when He had taken some bread and given
thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do
this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He
took the cup after they had eaten,
saying, “This cup which
is poured out for you is the new
covenant in My blood!"
Psalm
14:1
Romans
3:9-20
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:
‘There is no one
righteous, not even one;
11 there
is no one who understands;
there
is no one who seeks God.
12 All
have turned away,
they
have together become worthless;
there
is no one who does good,
not
even one.’[b]
13 ‘Their
throats are open graves;
their
tongues practise deceit.’[c]
‘The
poison of vipers is on their lips.’[d]
14 ‘Their
mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’[e]
15 ‘Their
feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin
and misery mark their ways,
17 and
the way of peace they do not know.’[f]
18 ‘There
is no fear of God before their eyes.’[g]
19 Now
we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are
under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the
whole world held accountable to God.
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous
in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the
law we become conscious of our sin.
You may think of yourself
as a good person. However, the real story, from God's
perspective, is something quite different. The indictment
of scripture is true about all of us.
How can salvation
through Jesus rescue us?
Salvation means God
Himself came down to our level, right where we are. He
looked up our address, arrived on our street, knocked on our
door. Right in the midst of our mistakes, the Lord
sought us out. Jesus
endeavors to rescue us from our sin &
bring healing to our broken lives.
The Lord wants to rescue
us from the trash can (where we were living), to bring us out of
this world's filth & lift us out of the shame &
degradation of sin.
Psalm 40
1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
He turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
He set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him.
4 Blessed is the one
who trusts in the Lord,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.
5 Many, Lord my God,
are the wonders you have done,
the things you planned for us.
None can compare with you;
were I to speak and tell of your deeds,
they would be too many to declare.
Religion can not make us
presentable. Instead, the Lord Himself, through Christ, on
the cross, offers to cleanse us (gives us a heavenly shower)
which takes all sin away from us. Salvation is like a
really good bath. Following that first
bath, there will be many more cleansings. And a process
called sanctification, by which the Holy
Spirit transforms us, over time, into the image of Christ.
Only God can do
these things for us.
When you were a child (or a baby) who
gave you daily baths?
The Lord is the One Who
forgives us & washes away all our sin. Just like
a baby, we can't really cleanse ourselves. Why do
spiritual infants think we can cleanse ourselves?
Picture the divine
bath: God sprays a divine garden hose over us, like a
dog's loving Master, Who cleans off the dirty dog after he has
been outside in the fields & returns home all covered with
sweat, dirt & mud. Sin stinks just like a dirty dog.
The pictures below illustrate the effect when God's hand reaches
out to cleanse us through the Blood of Christ. The water of
the Word & the streams of living water wash away our filth
& sin. We experience the washing of God's Word, &
the water immersion of baptism. Through His blood atonement
on the Christ, the Lord brings salvation...
Who is
accomplishing the sin cleansing? The Master (God)
or the dirty dog? (below)
Each picture shows a hand appearing from above. Reaching
out. The Master's hand draws close to cleanse.
The role of the dog is to
humble himself, trust & yield to the Master &
receive. A well-behaved canine loves to draw close to His
Master to receive food, cleansing, and daily companionship &
affection.
The role of the Master is
to initiate cleansing when it becomes noticeable the dog needs
it. The Master pours out fresh, pure water upon the dog
& cleanses the pup freely. All the
contaminants, filth & stench are washed
away. A good Master affectionately cares for
His beloved dog (iro).
Matthew 15:21-28
The faith of a Canaanite woman
21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of
Tyre and Sidon.
22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him,
crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My
daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.’
23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to
him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying
out after us.’
24 He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of
Israel.’
25 The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’
she said.
26 He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s
bread and toss it to the dogs.’
27 ‘Yes it is, Lord,’ she said. ‘Even the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from their Master’s
table.’
28 Then Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, you have great faith!
Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed at
that moment.
Romans 3:21-25
21 Now apart from the
law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which
the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through
faith in Jesus
Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between
Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice
of atonement, through the shedding
of His blood – to be received by faith.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
We are therefore Christ’s
ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through
us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.
21 God made Him who had no sin to be a sin offering [b] for us, so that
in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus answered: "I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and His brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people (as fishers of men)." 20 At once they left their nets and followed Him.
5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
‘Never
will I leave you;
never
will I forsake you.’[a]
6 So we say with confidence,
‘The
Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What
can mere mortals do to me?’[b]
Notice the
following scripture does not say: go to a church, synagogue, temple or parish,
perform rituals, participate in ceremonies & get
religious.
Romans 10:11-18
11 As Scripture says, ‘Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.’[e] 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’[f]
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’[g]
16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’[h] 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. 18 But I ask: did they not hear? Of course they did:
‘Their voice has gone out
into all the earth,
their
words to the ends of the world.’[i]
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.