Salvation History Chapter 19.Our Present Experience of Redemption.

Salvation History Chapter 19. Our Present Experience of Redemption.

Colossians 1:12-14.

These verses tell us four things about Redemption:

(1) The Origin of Redemption. "The Father...who delivered us"

Redemption is God's answer to man's need. God, seeing our need and our inability to help ourselves, out of his great love and mercy worked Redemption.

(2) The Person of Redemption. "his beloved Son, in whom we have Redemption."

You can't have Redemption without a Redeemer. God has not given us Redemption, but a Redeemer - a Person.

Redemption is not in the Sacrifice, nor in the blood, but is in a person - embrace the person and you embrace Redemption and the way it was obtained.

Redemption is therefore a RELATIONSHIP, not a thing that happens to you.

(3) The Process of Redemption. "The forgiveness of sins".

Redemption is the restoration of a lost inheritance, a making up of that from which we have "fallen short". Hence we need to be forgiven for our shortcomings. However forgiveness is not our inheritance in God, rather our inheritance is God himself, including his plan for us. Forgiveness is simply the process, or way, to our inheritance.

(4) The Result of Our Redemption. "to share in the inheritance... the kingdom of his beloved Son."

This tells us that, as far as we are concerned now, there are phases to our experience of Redemption:

(i) Deliverance from bondage.

(ii) Restoration of Relationship, and all that entails.

(iii) There is a present aspect of redemption (“forgiveness”) and a future aspect of redemption (“the inheritance”).

There is always the idea of being saved FROM something, TO something else. Salvation is not so much an event as it is a process.

REDEMPTION IS DELIVERANCE / SALVATION.

In our experience Redemption becomes synonymous with SALVATION.

Note: - We Christians are very lazy thinkers and readers, and we tend to identify several Bible words as being the same thing, i.e. saved, justified, born again, redeemed, and other related words which describe aspects of the conversion experience. However these words do not mean the same thing. They are all related and describe different aspects of the whole Christian conversion experience, but all are slightly different. By identifying them we miss out on the richness of the Bible's teaching, and on the shades of meaning God intended us to see.

Redemption involves the whole restoration of the heavens and the earth to God's plan. Salvation is the part of that plan of Redemption, which directly relates to delivering man from sin and bringing man back into God’s plan. Redemption goes beyond man’s experience.

Salvation - Definition.

Hebrew root = "to be broad", i.e. salvation is an expansion, an enlargement.

Greek = soteria = deliverance, preservation, salvation.

In the NT it is used to describe:

(a) Material and temporal deliverance from danger, national or personal.

(b) Spiritual and eternal deliverance.

(c) The experience of God's power in overcoming sin.

(d) The future deliverance of God's people at the Parousia (Second Coming).

(e) To sum up all the blessings given in Christ, including healing, financial prosperity, demonic deliverance, forgiveness, success, etc.

I.e. salvation is a much broader term than we normally use it for.

The basic idea in Scripture is twofold:

(i) Salvation is the whole process by which man is delivered from all which would prevent him attaining the highest Good God has prepared for him.

(ii) The enjoyment of that good.

The basic idea is deliverance from a bad situation so that we can enjoy good.

Personal Salvation.

(a) Is Progressive.

It comes in three phases:

(i) Past - Justification.

(ii) Present - Sanctification.

(iii) Future - Glorification.

(b) However once we have begun in the process the whole process is guaranteed.

Ephesians 2:1-7.

v1 - Made alive = justified.

v2 - raised us = Justified.

v6 - enthroned us = glorified.

Romans 8:29,30.

Five things God did for us:

(i) Foreknew.

(ii) Predestined.

(iii) Called.

(iv) Justified.

(v) Glorified.

Notice that all of these are in the past tense - this means that once you are in the process the end result is guaranteed.

THE THREE STAGES OF SALVATION.

(1) Past Salvation: - Justification.

Justification is the LEGAL pronouncement of acquittal, i.e. Not Guilty, by God. As a result we inherit a new legal standing in the courtroom of Heaven. Implied in this is the dealing with the guilt of sin through forgiveness. Justification is effected through Christ paying the Redemption penalty for us by his death.

Colossians 1:12-14.

Ephesians 1:7.

Colossians 2:13, 14.

This is picture language. It is drawn from Roman legal practice concerning financial borrowing.

On borrowing money two copies of an agreement were drawn up. The creditor kept one copy; the other was torn, or broken, in two. Half, showing the amount owed and the terms, was given to the creditor, who filed it, the other half was given to the debtor who took it home and nailed it to his front door - everyone knew the debtor was in debt but not the details.

On repayment of the debt the debtor took his half, with the money, to the creditor and it was matched with the other half. On payment of the debt the debtor could destroy all the copies of the document.

If the debtor could not repay it, he could get a relative to do so. In this case the relative took to torn half, to pay the debt, then the second copy was nailed up in the City Square, so all could read the details. Everyone knew - he was out of debt, but his relatives had to bail him out. He's a bad risk.

Paul tells us that Christ had to bail us out, but in our case he "blotted out the bond and its legal demands against us... nailing it to the cross." Everyone can see - we were bailed out, but they can't read the writing - the details of our sins, only the word "Forgiven", and Christ's signature appear with our name on the deed. It is blotted out - when God deals with sin he eradicates it eternally, it is never remembered again. God has the capacity to totally and immediately forget.

Because our sins are blotted out there is no charge against us.

HEAVEN HAS NO RECORD OF FORGIVEN SIN.

Hell has good records, but the Devil is a chronic liar and nothing he says can ever be true.

We can remember – it is good for us to remember - it stops us doing the same stupid thing again.

Psalms 103:10-12.

Psalms 32:1-5.

Romans 8:1.

Therefore we are justified by God, he sees us a Righteous.

Initially then, we experience salvation as forgiveness of sins and peace with God.

Alongside of this we begin to enter into the inheritance we have in God.

What is our inheritance?

There are many elements, but in summary it is God himself.

It is "his name, and his Father's name" Rev 3:12. This means his character, power and authority - everything he has and is becomes ours'.

The name is called a "SEAL". Rev 9:4.

The Seal of God is the Holy Spirit. Eph 1:13,14.

The Holy Spirit is the "guarantee", or down payment on our inheritance, which we will inherit in Eternity. The Seal is a mark of protection, and a guarantee that the whole inheritance will come to us. The inheritance is God himself, the down payment is God himself in the person of the Holy Spirit.

The eldest son received a double portion of the inheritance. Christ is the eldest son, and we are "in him." We receive this double portion. One portion comes now, the Holy Spirit; the other in Heaven, God Himself.

The Holy Spirit is given to us to work in our lives to guarantee that we will attain the whole inheritance. Eph 4:30.

(2) Present Salvation: - Sanctification.

Salvation means deliverance. To be saved is to be delivered from the evil powers of sin, the Devil, demons, the law, sickness, etc. This is obviously an experiential thing. Salvation tells me I have come from a place of bondage and am now in a place of freedom. Justification tells me simply where I now stand before God legally, Salvation defines my Experience.

It is possible to be justified AND KNOW IT, yet still be in bondage to sin, etc, i.e. not to be saved in any subjective experiential way.

The personal experience of salvation is a process, beginning with forgiveness and justification, but the process is not fully complete until the Second Coming. However our experience of salvation should be continuously growing. As we saw before - the end result is guaranteed, but how much of it we enjoy in this life depends on our personal response and obedience. It is sometimes called transformation.

Rom 12:1-3.

2 Cor 3:18.

Philippians 2:12

2 Thessalonians 2:13.

(3) Future Salvation: - Glorification.

See chapter 21.

1 Cor 15:50-57.

REDEMPTION IS RESTORATION.

(1) Past Restoration.

(a) Righteousness is Given.

Justification is not just a pronouncement of Acquittal, or not guilty, but it has a dynamic positive nature.

WE ARE DECLARED RIGHTEOUS.

Romans 5:18,19.

v18 - we are acquitted.

v19 - we are made righteous.

This means we are given a new nature and a positive new position before God. The righteousness of Christ becomes ours.

(b) New Life.

The end result of this is that the curse of death no longer has any hold over us, so God gives us new life, we are born again.

Rom 5:18. "acquittal AND LIFE for all men".

(c) Position.

We are made kings and priests. To reign as a king we must learn to serve as priests. Priests have one main function - to offer sacrifices. All of our sacrifices can be summed up in one word - prayer.

1 Peter 2:5.

(2) Present Restoration.

(a) Restoration of the Divine Nature in Us.

God wants us to radiate the image of God. This is part of the function of Priesthood. The nature of man, corrupted by the fall, is under reconstruction in our lives as we obey God.

Christianity should make people totally whole. We should be clearly seen as the answer to society's problems of alienation, loneliness, mental illness etc.

We need to make society and individuals in it whole. The key is love.

John 10:10, 8:32.

It is God's intention in redemption to restore our freedom. Only a Christian has the potential to be free and truly human.

(b) Restoration of Man's Dominion.

We are to rule the natural order - to wrest it out of Satan's control.

To learn how to do this we have to establish dominion over Satan in our own lives.

Romans 5:21.

Because we are already righteous we can reign in life. Reigning in life does not produce righteousness; rather righteousness produces reigning in life. Righteousness is a mighty power of God at work in our lives to give us victory.

Included in the concept of dominion are ideas of responsibility to correctly administer our inheritance. Christians should therefore be at the forefront of ecology and conservation issues.

(c) Manifesting God’s life and Kingdom.

Live a kingdom life.

Preach a Kingdom gospel.

Manifest a kingdom power.