When I say "salvation" what comes to mind? Really...stop.... consider salvation for a minute or two....what is involved, why is it needed, what happens, what a miracle of God!
If we have had the blessing of being involved in church for many years we have a tendency to not really think much about our salvation.
I think we tend to hold our salvation as something that we have settled with God in the past and now we can focus on "living out the Christian life" (Of course, that just begs, "What does the Christian Life look like?", but that is for another time.).
We almost dismiss a discussion of salvation as a silly question...so basic that discussing it is only for children or the new in Christ....."Everybody knows how salvation works." you might think.
Ok....stop and pretend you are telling the easiest person in the world to talk to (maybe your grandmother, for example)....
Just begin speaking aloud and explain how salvation works to an imaginary person. Act like your pretend person has NEVER heard of Jesus or the Bible and explain it. You can't say..."Just surrender to Christ" or "Call on Jesus". That is certainly a part of the process, but "churchy clichés" are not the GOSPEL. I think you find the exercise revealing.
I would say that explaining salvation is inseparable from proclaiming the GOSPEL, the good news. I heard someone say "We cannot give away what we do NOT possess."
We will be studying salvation for the next few weeks.
We looked at Regeneration briefly last week in class.
Regeneration is a theological word....but don't dismiss REGENERATION as boring....it is an exciting MIRACULOUS word.
God though His grace allows us to really hear the gospel message...the word of God suddenly penetrates through for us to finally hear.
We become ALIVE......it's like cotton balls suddenly fell out of our ears allowing you to hear the word of GOD. The people around us might not have heard it...we may have been exposed to the Gospel message countless times before, but NOW...at this INSTANT, GOD, by His Grace, allows us to REALLY -REALLY hear for the first time about his LOVE. We see HIS great sacrifice for us on the Cross and we GET IT! (that is a MIRACLE!) We may not have understood everything...but we are DRAWN to CHRIST. It goes from obscurity or foolishness to suddenly the most PROFOUND thing we have ever heard.
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." John 6:44 NASB
"A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul." Acts 16:14 NASB
If you have been BORN AGAIN...then God had to make himself known to you....YOU....GOD chose to allow YOU to HEAR the gospel. It is a miracle!
How does it work?
Nobody this side of heaven knows.....but regeneration happens EVERYTIME someone is saved - Born Again.
What if regeneration doesn't happen...
We see it in the sower and seed parable...The stony ground hearer....The word is sown and the person merely made an emotional or moralistic decision to be a better person or to try out being a Christian...He rejoices for while, but as trials occur, temptation is faced with human effort, which only results in a life continuing in sinful behavior, tries reading the bible but it as boring as reading the dictionary, tries to pray but it bounces off the ceiling, falling away from fellowship or abandoning the faith altogether sometimes. He or she sadly basically FAKES it..."I understand this is how a Christian is supposed to act, but I feel NOTHING" Jesus warned that many would continue all the way to the end -even being active and serving in roles in the church "un-regenerated" - never knowing Him, but pretending. (Matthew 7:21)
Regeneration is sometimes too simply equated with "Born Again", but there is also repentance and belief are also involved....we will discuss much more in class.
http://www.sbc.org/bfm/bfm2000.asp#iv see the SBC website for more info.
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