Salvation

1. The Problem of Man—Mat 5:20—You and I are not righteous in ourselves, not in any sense of the word.
a. Rom 3:10-11—all are sinners; Ps 58:3—we are sinners from birth, we are, in and of ourselves, unholy, unclean, unrighteous creatures. We are really fit for neither heaven nor earth.
b. Our sin offends the Holy God we serve, and our rebellion spits in His face, even as He makes His offers of Love.
c. WE have no righteousness, our accounts in heaven are overdrawn, overdue, overloaded, and impossible for us to pay.
d. Not only are we loaded down with sin, we are completely destitute of merit

2. But now, “two words upon which all of history rests.”

a. “But now…” These two words bridge the gap between the Old Testament and the New
(1) In the old times, men were still considered guilty of sin…Paul tells us in Romans 1 that they are without excuse…
(2) But God was patient, and had not destroyed the human race and judged it for its rebellion against a Sovereign and Holy God.
(3) But now…..Acts 17:30-31
(4) God’s patience has gone on since the beginning of the human race, but now no more, because He has appointed a day--Acts 17:31

b. But Now, The Plan of God: God’s plan was determined before the foundation of the world, and was manifested in God’s time
(1) God had a Redeemer—1 Pet 1:18-20
(2) He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world—Rev 13:8, 17:8
(3) God Promised redemption before time began—Titus 1:1-2
(4) Before time began, God the Father promised God the Son, “If you will be their Redeemer, I will give you a people, I will give them eternal life!”
c. God’s plan is a mystery to us, revealed a piece at a time—Rom 16:25-27
(1) Paul often refers to the Gospel as a mystery—1 Cor 2:7, Col 1:26-7, 1 Tim 3:16
(2) The Gentile nations were cut off, but now…Eph 2:11-13
(3) The old covenant was good, but now there is a new covenant…..Heb 8:5-6—
(4) The old sacrifices never paid for sin, only put off the reckoning from year to year—but now—Heb 9:24-28
(5) Once we were lost, but now….1 Pet 2:9-10
(6) God’s plan will come to full fruition

3. The righteousness of God
a. Author of God’s Righteousness—God—Phil 3:9, Isa 45:8, 2 Cor 5:21
(1) This is not some plan hatched in a theological seminary.
(2) Calvin, Luther, and Knox did not sit down one day over a pot of coffee and say, “Imputed Righteousness—that’s it!”
(3) This is the plan and mystery of God from before the foundation of the world, manifested and brought forth in our time—Mat 25:34

b. Nature of God’s Righteousness imputed to our account—this is IMPUTED Righteousness—Rom 4:6-8. Imputation is one of the most important words in the New Testament—the entire fourth chapter of Romans is dedicated to expositing the concept of imputed righteousness.
c. Source of the Righteousness of God—
(1) the righteous life and infinite being of our Savior.
(2) Christ fulfilled every precept of the Law—He lived a life of perfect conformity to God’s will.
(a) Mat 5:17-20
(b) Rom 3:28-31—The Law is upheld and recognized as Holy and True—Isa 42:21,
(c) Heb 4:14-15—He had no sin, He knew no sin, He did no sin, yet Christ suffered the penalty of the Law.
(i) By His infinite Being
(ii) By His absolute power and righteousness

d. Extent of God’s Righteousness—it is total!
(1) The righteousness of God is infinite, as the One who wrought it on our behalf is infinite.
(2) This is not some righteousness wrought for a temporary fix, the blood of Christ covers all our sins—Heb 7:25, Jn 10:27-28

e. Duration of God’s Righteousness—There is no end to the Righteousness of God. ‘everlasting righteousness,’ Daniel 9:24, Psa 119:142, Isa 51:6-8, Heb 9:12

f. Influence of God’s Righteousness
(1) God’s righteousness destroys the guilt of Sin—Heb 9:26
(2) God’s imputed righteousness is the basis of our fellowship and relationship with Him—Eph 2:13
(3) This righteousness has eternal consequences —Heb 9:27-28
(4) This righteousness enables us to live for Christ—Col 1:13-14 , Eph 5:8

4. Righteousness is apart from the Law—3:21
a. Righteousness is not against the Law, it is apart from it
b. Examples of uses of “Law: in the Bible
(1) “Law” as self-righteousness—Luke 18:9, Phil 3:4-9, Rom 10:1-4
(2) “Law” as one of the two or three divisions of the Old Testament—Mat 22:40, Lk 24:44
(3) The Law of Moses—Luke 2:22, John 1:17
(4) The Law written on hearts, i.e., the human conscience—Rom 2:15
(5) The Law written in nature—Ps 19:1-6
(6) The economy, or dispensation of Law as opposed to the economy or dispensation of Grace—Rom 6:14

5. The Revelation of Righteousness—3:21c “…law is revealed…”
a. Something previously hidden and veiled in types and shadows is now revealed fully.
b. But it is something that always existed
(1) How were the Old Testament saints saved? By believing the Gospel—Gal 3:8-9. The Gospel in Gen 12:1-3—How is this statement considered to be the Gospel? “...in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
(a) God said it was the Gospel
(b) Well, the only aspect in which Abraham can be said to touch ALL the families of the earth is that Abraham is the ancestor of the Messiah—every family will be represented in Heaven—Rev 5:9 “…You … have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
(c) Gal 3:6, 7, 16—Abraham believed the promise of God, WHICH INCLUDED the coming Redeemer--and, as we see later when we look at Hebrews, Abraham saw God’s plan “afar off”, and God put it to his account for righteousness—
(d) Abraham was saved by IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS—Rom 4:1-8, 4:17
c. Old Testament Salvation
(1) Salvation is Salvation--The real answer to how Old Testament believers were saved is this: "God's people in the Old Testament were saved the same way that people are saved in New Testament times, that is, by grace, through faith in the sacrifice of Christ."
(2) The Revelation of Christ Well, it is true that Christ was not fully revealed until He came in the flesh, but try the following mysterious passage on for size! Heb 11:24-26
(3) The Eternal Christ—Job 19:25-27—Most scholars believed that Job lived in the times of Abraham--several hundred years before even Moses. How could Job know about the Redeemer?
(4) How could Job know that the Redeemer would be God Incarnate--God the Son? There are some liberal theologians around today who read the Bible from cover to cover and can’t figure out that Jesus is God! Job had no Bible!
(5) The answer has to be, because there is no other answer, that God revealed to Job sufficient information for Job to have faith in what God was going to do. Job did not know the all details, though he knew a lot more than others, but Job believed in God's promise of redemption, because God had apparently revealed it to him in some way.

d. The only way of salvation was always salvation by Grace through Faith.
(1) The Law was a parenthesis in the history of God's dealings with the human race. Grace, which was the only way of eternal salvation even in times of Law, was the heart of the covenant with Abraham, which came 400 years before the law! Gal 3:17-18
(2) The purposes of the Law
(a) To teach us the horrible nature of our sinfulness and our inability to save ourselves--The Law could never save, only condemn—Rom 3:19-20
(b) To prepare Israel for the Coming of the Redeemer; the Law is our tutor to lead us to Christ—Gal 2:16-3:29

6. Two Witnesses—“…being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,…” Lk 24:25-27

a. Witnessed by the Law, i.e., in this context, the five books of Moses……The books of Moses were full of shadows that pointed forward to the Cross
(1) The Promise in the Garden: the Promise of the Seed, the animal skins provided
(2) Abel’s knowledge of blood sacrifice: Heb 11:4
(3) Noah sacrificing after the Flood
(4) The Sacrifice on Mt. Moriah (Gen 22), and the other sacrifices of the Patriarchs
(5) The Passover Lamb
(6) Imputed righteousness was taught in the books of the Law--Genesis 15:6, 2 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 11:7.
b. Imputed righteousness was taught in the books of the Prophets
(1) Psalms 51:14, Psalms 71:15, 16, 19, 24, Psalms 85:10, 13, Psalms 89:16, Psalms 119, 142, Psalms 145:7.
(2) The righteousness of the Messiah, as connected with salvation, is the constant theme of the Prophets, especially of Isaiah. Isaiah 42:21, Isaiah 45:8, Isaiah 45:24, 25, Isaiah 46:13, Isaiah 51:5, 7, Isaiah 61:11, Isaiah 54:17, Isaiah 56:1, Isaiah 61:11, Isaiah 62:1, 2.
(3) The other prophets also refer to these “New Covenant” themes—Jeremiah 23:5, Daniel 9:24, Hosea 10:12, Malachi 4:2.