Salvation in Action
Tom Shrader explores the doctrine of salvation as God's complete solution to humanity's separation from Him due to sin. Drawing from Paul's ministry in Athens and his teaching in Romans, he explains that salvation requires both a human messenger and the specific message of Christ's substitutionary atonement. He emphasizes that this is not about religious activity but about God's grace through Christ's death and resurrection, demanding a personal decision of repentance and faith.
“God hates religion if by religion we mean some sort of ritual that we go through, thereby connecting us with this God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Christianity 101 (2014)
Recorded: May 08, 2014
Duration: 39 min
Themes: salvation, grace, repentance, faith, sin, forgiveness, redemption, hope, new believer, questioning faith, seeking salvation, struggling with sin, feeling separated from god, doubting god's love, young adult, exploring christianity
Scripture: Acts 17:16-34, Romans 10:9-15, 1 Corinthians 2:14, John 6:44, Romans 3:23, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Matthew 28:19, Acts 1:8, Ephesians 1
Theological Themes: soteriology, substitutionary atonement, justification, regeneration, total depravity, holy spirit, sanctification, biblical doctrine
Full Transcript
We are in week 7 of an 8-week series titled Christianity 101. These are the basics, and those basics are important. Whether it's golf, business, or anything else, you need to understand the fundamentals. In our faith, these are the basics.
If you are here and haven't been with us, we can do this lesson as a standalone, but I want you to see what is the beauty of this sequence. Seeing it sequentially gives a lot more meaning and understanding to this. We started the first week with doctrine—here's the body of truths we believe. The second week, we said, "Okay, where do we get that doctrine?" We get it from the Bible.
Now we're ready to answer the big questions in life, but focusing centrally on two things. Who is God? Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We get a sense of God, who He is, and then we turn the lens around and we look at man—the condition of mankind.
Let me give you two verses that we've talked about for at least the last two weeks. 1 Corinthians 2:14: Natural man does not understand spiritual things. He can't. He doesn't have the decoder, he doesn't have the Holy Spirit. If you can sit and talk to somebody and you have argued with them, reasoned with them, presented them these scriptures and illustrations that just unlocked everything for you, and they look at you with a blank stare, it's not that you're smarter than they are. It's simply they don't have the Holy Spirit in them to understand this.
The second verse is John 6:44: No one can come to the Father unless the Father draws him. Here's what we've said. The Bible teaches in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the wage of sin is death, meaning separation. In our natural state, every one of us come into the world as children of wrath, separated from God. This is going to challenge some of your thinking here—we are dead in our sins and trespasses.
The Human Condition
We're in a situation where we're helpless and hopeless on our own, but not hopeless overall. Something needs to happen to us, and we said that's the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes and brings us to life. This may or may not line up with your personal experience, but this is what the Bible teaches is happening to us on a theological basis.
Here's God—He's a holy God. You get the questions all the time: "How could a loving God send anyone to hell?" Well, the question that is equally important is to say, "How can a holy God let anyone in heaven?" That's what we look at today.
Paul's Example in Athens
If you have Bibles, open them to the book of Acts, chapter 17, and we'll follow along pretty closely with your outline. We are making some big points, some important points. As we pick up in Acts chapter 17, Paul has been through Thessalonica and Berea. He's coming to Athens, waiting for his guys to come along and hook up to begin the missionary journey.
Acts chapter 17 is one of those "what do you do while you're waiting?" situations. Paul's waiting for them in Athens. His spirit is provoked within him as he beholds a city full of idols. Verse 17 says he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews, with the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happen to be present.
What's Paul doing as he's waiting? He's not sitting at home watching SportsCenter. He's in the marketplace. There are the Jews, and he's reasoning with them, talking about Old Testament stuff. There are the God-fearing Gentiles, so there would be a little bridge between the culture and the Old Testament teaching. Then he's in the marketplace.
What should you be doing? You should be engaging those who happen to be present in your life. Those that God brings into your life come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some will be intimate conversations, some will be casual conversations. There's a tendency to underestimate the influence you have.
One of my friends says it this way: most of us overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a decade. We think we can go out, do something, have an encounter, and there it is. In reality, it takes a long time to influence. That's what we want to be—salt and light in the world where God has placed us.
What Is Salvation?
Point one in your outline is that salvation—and by salvation, let's make sure we understand it—is the reconciling of God and man. It's the moment we've built to. Salvation, saved, rescued, delivered should prompt in your mind a question: Saved from what? Rescued from what? Delivered from what?
I'm in a state of peril, separated from God. Two things happen. If I die in that condition, I spend eternity in a place called hell. But the point I want to make, because everybody sort of gets that dynamic, is that salvation means having a life here that has meaning and direction in it.
It sounds like some sort of card that Hallmark would make, but when I know Christ, the sunrises are sweeter, the grass is greener, life is better. There are some—and I may fall into this category myself, though it's not a time of confession—who would say, "Here would be the great way to live: Live and do whatever you want to do, and then right before you die, come to Christ in repentance and faith, and in essence, have the best of both worlds." I'm probably not the only one that thinks that way.
But we need to grasp this: knowing Christ, yes, heaven is secure, but this life here is richer. Paul's in Athens, and in verse 22, he's been invited to speak to the intelligentsia of the day. Here's what he says in verse 22: "Men of Athens..."
I observe that you're very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining your objects of worship, I also found an altar with an inscription to an unknown God. What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.
We can learn a lot from this. Paul's walking through town, and he's observing their religion, the idols that are all through town. One scholar suggests there were as many as 30,000 gods who were being worshipped in Athens. Another says it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens.
Learning from Paul's Cultural Awareness
So this becomes a model for your life. Yesterday there's a lady who comes to church on Wednesday morning, and her daughter or friend gives her a subscription to Sports Illustrated every year. So every Wednesday she brings me generally a week-back copy of Sports Illustrated. And the cover is Johnny Football. I've got no idea what this article is going to say, but I know this: I've got illustrations all over this.
You need to begin to look at life. You're watching something on TV, something on the news. You're reading a book. There's something in the culture. We need to be culturally aware. Not just cultural warriors that are fighting battles everywhere, but we need to understand how the culture thinks so that we can connect with them on their level.
And I'll tell you, if you want to understand the culture, one of the best ways to do it is to go to Costco and look at the books they're carrying. Costco has zero tolerance. If it doesn't sell, it's gone. So you can go into Costco and you can see the NIV Study Bible sitting next to the Book of Mormon next to Christopher Hitchens. I mean, the whole thing is filled with what's selling. This is the world you live in.
Paul's Approach to the Unknown God
And Paul takes the time to understand the culture and relates the culture to truth. He's saying, "Listen, you're religious people. Don't want to debate that. We've got evidence all over that you're deeply religious. We got 30,000 gods."
But he said then, "It's like, we've got the God of wood and light and doors. We got gods of grass and sky and moon and stars. But then there's one that says, if we missed it, it's this unknown God." So Paul starts, and listen, "You're deeply religious people. You seem really concerned about God and spiritual things. You've got a statue to an unknown God. I want to talk to you about that unknown God." And it's going to be different than religion.
God Hates Religion
I hadn't been around Larry Wright's teaching very long when one day he made this statement. He said, "God hates religion." And I remember how I kind of jerked back at that because I was raised to think, "No, that's what it means to be in a relationship with God." And I wouldn't even use the word relationship to worship Him or honor Him, that it's all about religion.
Well, God hates religion if by religion we mean some sort of ritual that we go through, thereby connecting us with this God. Just the opposite. Here's what I've discovered: great place to hide from God, church. And within the church, if you really want to hide, get in the choir because not even God's looking there for this thing.
But that's the whole idea. I remember years ago, and I've reached that point in my life where I'm with the young guys today, and we're talking about preaching. So they'll bring me in. And they were asking about when we got to Easter. I said, "One of the mistakes I think I've made over the years is I miscalculated on Easter and Christmas." I tend to minimize the fact that those are special times, especially for people who are coming who don't typically come to church.
The Problem with Religious Activity
And I think I've shared this with you before. I was, I don't know how many years ago, on an Easter Sunday, I was so frustrated. We had spent all week planning and prepping and parking in different places and adding children's ministry. And we did seven services, and I'm about the fourth service. And I said, "I'm so frustrated with you all that come on Easter and don't come another time. I don't know why you do it. You pick the worst day of the year to be here. Everything's a mess and it's crowded. Come next week. We got a lot of space."
But I said, "I don't understand what drives you here." And my fear is that some of you come and then leave, and you're worse off than when you came because you think you're okay because you were in church. That's what religion does. Religion is about me or you or the individual doing something to please God and somehow mend this relationship. So salvation is not about religious activities.
Salvation Depends on a Messenger and Message
I'm going to take point two and point three and kind of combine them, and hopefully I can do it in such a way you can sort it out. Salvation depends upon a messenger, a human messenger, and on a specific message.
Romans 10. So you're in the book of Acts. Turn to the right to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 10. Paul has this very concise section in Romans 10 verse 9: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, man believes, resulting in righteousness. With the mouth, he confesses, resulting in salvation."
And now he quotes: "Here's what we're looking at. Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. There's no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Lord is the Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him. Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved."
The Logic of Salvation
Now some logic here: "How then shall they call upon Him if they do not believe? And how should they believe in Him if they haven't heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach if they're not sent?"
Quotes from the Old Testament: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things." He said, "Listen, this makes sense. They can't believe if they don't hear, they can't hear if there isn't a messenger." He quotes from the Old Testament: "How beautiful are the..."
feet of those who bring good tidings. The only time I've been out of the country, other than Canada or Mexico, was in 1983 on this quick trip. We were gone two weeks, but we covered a lot of ground. We went to Hong Kong, to Bangkok, somewhere else in there, then to Madras, Calcutta, and then to New Guinea.
In New Guinea, and all these places had a specific purpose, we were there to do a pastor's conference. We're in a room about half the size of this room, and there's 150 of these guys there—pastors that have spent anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks to get there, rowing canoes, walking through jungles. It's Guy Davidson, who used to be at Grace Community Church, Roy Gustafson, who was one of Billy Graham's right-hand men, Franklin Graham, and myself. I'm the appendage on this trip.
They're interviewing Franklin, who's going to speak, and they're translating, and they get to a point—just remember this, we're in the middle of nowhere. They said, "This is Franklin Graham, his dad is Billy Graham." And they go, "Billy Graham!" And all of these 150 guys went, "Wow!" How do they know that? We're there, and I'm out of my element, I'm uncomfortable. One of my idols is comfort and ease.
I'm looking around at these guys, and as they're telling their story, they're ministering in these jungles and these really difficult environments. I'm looking at their feet, and their feet were literally this thick—just layers and layers and layers. They weren't wearing shoes, just blisters. And I thought of this verse: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things." There's a messenger that brings this message.
The Unlikely Messenger
Paul talks about—get in your mind the picture of Paul. If you were going to cast him in a movie, I hadn't been around this stuff very long, where I'm saying, "Man, I'm really attracted to this guy, Paul." Tough, straightforward. Years ago, we were out eating lunch, and I'm with somebody, their back's to the door, and in walks this guy, and he looked just like Paul Newman. Paul Newman had died like two weeks before, so I was pretty sure it wasn't Paul Newman. But I mean, he looked—not resembled, I resemble Paul Newman—I mean, looked like him. You looked, and you thought—and I said to the person, "You should see the guy that just came in," and he turns around, and he looks back, "He looks just like Paul Newman."
If I'm casting somebody for Paul, it's like a Paul Newman, or like at the coaches conference, there was this guy, Travis. He played 16 years in the NFL, and he's just—I mean, he's just a man's man, and just a stud up there. I mean, I'm watching him, and I'm thinking, "That's what I think I look like." I know I don't. He's about 6'2", and just ripping out of his—I'm ripping out of my shirt here, but he's ripping.
If you're casting Paul, you think of that. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1. Paul talks about coming to the city of Corinth. Corinth was a tough place. In Greek literature, whenever they depicted a Corinthian man, he was a slobbering drunk. If it was a Corinthian woman, she was a prostitute. It was a tough place. Paul's coming in there.
Paul's Weakness and God's Power
First Corinthians 2, verse 1: "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise, persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the power of the Spirit so that your faith may not rest on man's wisdom, but on God's power."
So just take out the message part there in the middle. Look at him describe himself. He said, "I came, but I wasn't very eloquent. I wasn't arguing with you with some superior knowledge. Inside, I was weak, I was afraid, I was trembling." Paul wasn't Travis or Paul Newman or some rugged figure.
One author of the day writing about Paul wrote this: "He sounds big, but it's all noise. When he gets here, you'll see that there's nothing great about him and you've never heard a worse preacher." Physically, they say he was short and bow-legged and bald and had a hooked nose and he had a thorn in the flesh. There's a lot of debate about what that is, but some believe it had to do with an eye that constantly was just leaking.
The Message Over the Messenger
Here's this short, bow-legged, bald, hooked nose, eye-dripping guy who's not very persuasive or articulate and is not overpowering with his intellect. That's the messenger. You can do that. The power was in his heart.
Look what he's saying. I've clung to this over the years. He's saying, "I didn't want the messenger to overpower the message." If you watch and listen, people will talk about the messenger oftentimes more than the message. "His voice was so smooth. He was dressed perfectly. He argued in such a way that it was so." And I'm not saying don't—it's not like don't do that. But here's what happens. At the end of the day, people tend to say, "Wasn't he good? Wasn't she good?" And Paul's saying, "I don't want that."
He's not saying "I'm deliberately bad." He's saying "I'm just being who I am and get out of the way so that the preaching is not with wise and persuasive words, but there's a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith isn't rested on man's wisdom, but on God's power." So at the end of the day, you say, "Wow, what a God," not "Wow, what a messenger."
Your Heart Needs to Be Like Paul's
Your heart needs to be like Paul's. It's not that you need another. That's my fear when we start having all these classes and evangelism classes, and all of a sudden you're going, "Well, I can't really do evangelism. I haven't been through the class yet." Paul's saying, "Listen, my heart was humbled. I had an understanding of who I was, and I wanted to preach Christ and Christ crucified."
Business, Paul said, "Let me tell you about Jesus." If you talked about marriage, Paul said, "Let me tell you about Jesus."
I did a men's conference—I can't even remember where it was—and I had maybe four sessions. I'd done three, and we have a little break, probably Saturday night with one left on Sunday. The guy said, "I'm a little disappointed in what you're doing." I said, "Well, I hear that a lot." I said, "What's the problem?" He said, "Well, you haven't talked about kids. You haven't talked about marriage. It's a men's conference—be a man." That's the latest thing: "Be a man."
I said, "Well, let me tell you what I found in my parenting. I was a better parent when I was closer to Jesus. I was a better husband when I was in a right, deep relationship with God." Jack Packer, in his classic book *Knowing God*, says, "Once I understand that my main objective here is to know and glorify God, most of life falls into place on its own." Meaning, if I'm in right relationship with God, I'm going to tend to be in right relationship with Sandy or Sarah or Haley or you or the people at church or the people at work. Paul said, "You want to talk about marriage? Okay, guys, love your wife like Christ loved the church. Wives, submit to your husband like the Son submits to the Father."
Our Condition and God's Character
So if you take what we talked about in the last three or four weeks, it's that our condition is that we are depraved. It doesn't mean we're as bad as we can possibly be. It means we're as bad off as we can possibly be. You're as far separated from God as Hitler is. It doesn't take more grace to save you than it did to save Jeffrey Dahmer. That's the condition of man.
God's character is holy. We can't do anything about it. We're helpless on our own. But there's a substitute. That's why God became man.
The Necessity of Sacrifice
I had a small group one time that was wrestling with, "Was there any other way for God to save man?" So there was one group that said, "Yeah, He's God. He could simply say you're forgiven." So that was one view. There was another view—the right view, my view—that said, "No, there wasn't another way."
Now I know that based on a couple of things. One, the night before He died, Jesus said, "If there's another way, let's do it." But somehow, the holiness of God demands payment for our sin, and payment had to be through sacrifice. There was no perfect human. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So God had to become flesh and dwell among us, live a perfect life, so He's a perfect sacrifice.
Substitutionary Atonement
Here you go now: He died in your place. The term we use is substitutionary atonement. He experienced the separation from God. He paid the price for the penalty of your sin on the cross that day. God's provision for us is a substitute and a Savior.
Chuck Swindoll, writing about grace, writes this: "What God does for mankind, which we don't deserve"—you know, he's defining grace—"which we cannot earn, which we will never be able to repay. Helpless to change, polluted to the core, with no possibility of cleaning ourselves up, we cry out for grace. It's our only hope."
So 2 Corinthians 5:21: "God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ."
The Exclusivity of Christ
This is where we start to lose people. As long as we talk about God in a generic way, no problem. As long as we talk about Jesus, and we talk about Jesus the miracle worker, Jesus the teacher, Jesus the role model, we're fine. But now we talk about Jesus as the only way to the Father, and we go, "Wow, that's very narrow, that's very exclusive."
My argument would be, that's irrelevant. It's either true or it isn't true, and that's established on what the Bible says. Ultimately, that becomes the barometer and value for every person.
A Story About Life and Death
Haley was about eight or nine, maybe ten, and it's a Saturday, and I'm sitting where I should be, watching TV, and just starting a biography. Haley walks in and said, "Do you care if I change the channel?" I said, "Do you care if you want to live till tomorrow? No, don't touch it." She said, "What are you watching?" I said, "Well, it's a biography." She said, "Who's it about?" I said, "John F. Kennedy." She said, "Can I watch it?" I said, "Well, it's two hours long." She said she'd watch it, so she laid there and watched it—very thorough.
It starts with Joe and Rose and Brookline, Massachusetts. Kennedy's born in 1917, so we're coming up on the 100th anniversary. He's raised, Joe's the ambassador to England. He goes—John and the family goes over there, comes back, goes to school, goes to Harvard, PT-109. He comes back, Joe Jr. gets killed, so JFK runs for Congress, runs for the Senate, decides to run for president, heads to West Virginia, where Joe says, "Listen, I'm not paying for a landslide here." They win West Virginia, go to Wisconsin, the election—got a few dead people voting in Texas and Illinois—we're president. I mean, that's kind of the thing.
President—so it starts to talk about Cuban Missile Crisis, Peace Corps, a fairly thorough but somewhat edited view of Him. Then all of a sudden the screen goes blank. Here's this next scene. It's a beautiful day—you know where this is going—and the sky is blue, and there's Air Force One, and there's the president and Jackie coming down the stairs. She's got on her pink dress and her roses, and now the motorcade through Dallas, Dealey Plaza, then dark, then the horse-drawn casket, riderless horse, boots backwards.
Haley said, "What is that?" I said, "Well, that's a casket," and apparently she knew what that meant. She said, "So somebody's dead." I said, "Yes." She said, "Who is that?" I said, "John F. Kennedy." She said, "Well, how did He die?" I said, "Well, He got shot." "Who shot Him?" Oliver Stone. I don't know who shot Him. You know, I don't know—He got shot. This is now not the time to sort this out. He's dead.
A 10-Year-Old's Summary
So Haley, now Haley's 10, summarized all this in four words. Here's what Haley said: "Did he know Jesus?" Now I don't know if he did or not, and I understand it's hypothetical. Think with me for a second.
If he didn't know Jesus, this man - and we got a great library and high schools named after him all over the joint - if he didn't know Jesus, let me tell you something. Right now, he would trade places with any of you. Don't read an assumption into that - I'm speaking hypothetically. If he didn't know Jesus, this president, what he was president of the United States doesn't matter in terms of eternal value. If he didn't know Jesus, he's in hell, and if he could, he'd trade places with any of you.
If you have the time, go back to the book of Acts, starting in about chapter two, and look at those early sermons. They're all about crucifixion, resurrection, crucifixion, resurrection, crucifixion, resurrection. That's the gospel: we were sinners and Christ died in our place. He died so that we could have eternal life.
The Global Solution
Number five: understand this is global. This is not unique to America. This is the global solution to the problem. Matthew 28: "Go therefore make disciples of all nations." Acts chapter one, verse eight: "When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the remotest parts of the earth."
Man has a problem - all men, all places, all time. That is that our sin has separated us from God. The solution is not religion or cleaning up your act. I would go so far as to say that people who've never heard the gospel spend eternity in hell. It seems to me that's true. If that's not true, I don't know why we spend a dime on missions, because all we're doing is screwing them up by bringing the gospel in there. If they can be saved apart from Christ, why would you waste time with this? No, I hang in jeopardy and I'm in real peril, and the only solution is Christ.
The Complete Solution
The sixth point here: it's the complete solution. In Ephesians chapter one, Paul lays out the fact that we have everything we need pertaining to life in Christ. It's salvation - I'm as ready for heaven as I can ever be. I can't be any more saved, and I'm ready for life here, now, complete. God is in the process of restoring His creation in you, in me.
The last point is that this salvation demands a personal decision. It was Abraham Lincoln, I think, who said, "The last best hope for mankind is the United States of America, this country." The last and only hope for mankind is Jesus.
Simple Questions
I put it in simple questions here. Is there any hope for lost sinners? Yes, Christ. Is there any work that a lost sinner can do? No, believe. Is there any way that I can lose this gift of salvation? No, if I believe in Him, I have eternal life, which begins right now.
It's a moment, maybe, for you to do a little self-evaluation. Have you come to Christ in repentance and faith? It may be that your life is radically different than it was a few years ago, but all you've done is a little behavior modification.
Spurgeon's Story
One of my favorite stories about one of my favorite characters, Charles Spurgeon. Charles - I don't know if you know that name. If not, a little reading would be helpful. Spurgeon is considered by many the prince of preachers. He did not go to school, wasn't trained. He was criticized by his peers for being a little crass, too much humor, a little earthy, smoked cigars, for which he was chastised. He said, "If it becomes a problem, I'll stop." They said, "What's the problem?" He said, "Two at a time."
He tells the story of a preacher across town in London who one day was converted under his own preaching. He's preaching along, and all of a sudden, somebody in the congregation stood up and said, "I think the pastor's been saved." Another one stood up and said, "This is what we've been praying for." I love that.
Personal Salvation
My point is you can be in church, in the pulpit, delivering these messages with a music stand on a Thursday morning somewhere, and that doesn't guarantee salvation. Salvation is for those who know Christ in a personal way. That means I confess my sin - not list it - I acknowledge my life is what God says it is: sinful, separated from Him, and that the only provision to make that right is belief.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him..." That doesn't mean mental assent. You'd be a fool to deny that Jesus existed, but to believe that when Christ died on the cross, it was not His physical death that was agonizing, but His becoming and taking the punishment that we deserve.
I believe if that's true, I'm saved, redeemed, I'm His. If I don't, no matter what I do, I'm lost.
What's Next?
Now what? Now I'm into this new thing called the body of Christ. What do I do next? Next week, we talk about the church - God's provision for us.
Let's pray. Father, thank You for this amazing truth. It is 101. For those of us who really get it, I don't know if we ever grow tired of this. It reminds us of who You are, and the minute we see You, we see ourselves for who we are. God, help us resist the temptation to be religious and embrace the offer of salvation through Christ in Christ alone. Then God, let us be messengers that You use with the right message to proclaim that truth to our world, to those who happen to be in our life. God, we pray these things to You in Christ's name, Amen.