Hello God's family, today I will be sharing with us what I titled understanding the power of salvation. salvation refers to being rescued from God’s wrath and judgment that we deserve because of our sin. It means being delivered from the penalty of sin, which happens the moment we believe; being delivered from the power of sin, as we grow in godliness; and, being delivered from the very presence of sin when we stand blameless in His presence in glory ( Jude 24 ).
Evangelical Christianity has as its major theme salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. It rings with the heartbeat that “God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” It proclaims a message that Christ bore our sins in His own body on the Cross, and it sings a song of praise, “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”
“The gospel is the power of God to Salvation”!
The Power of God’s Word in Law and Gospel
Most of what we have said in discussing the powerful word has taken it for granted that we speak of the word of the gospel by which God regenerates sinners, calling them “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Strictly speaking not all of Scripture, but only the gospel, is a means of grace. The law is not a means of grace, but yet it is powerful in working fear and terror in the heart of the sinner. It is a two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). In his words to the disciples on the night he was betrayed, Jesus spoke of the work of the Holy Spirit. He said “When He [the “Helper”] has come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged” (John 16:8–11). The Holy Spirit works not only by the gospel; his powerful work is through the law as well. When the law is proclaimed, and the sinners see their sinfulness, that too is the work of the Holy Spirit, and the sharp condemnation of the law burns judgment on the heart.
SOURCE OF SALVATION (John 3:16)
Salvation began in the great ocean of God's love. "For God so loved the world." The first verse most children learn is the hardest to believe: "God is love" (1 John 4:8). It is easier to believe God is passive or God is angry than to believe God is love. Why? Because from the earliest age most us experience ourselves as objects of disapproval. Every child learns to say, "No," before he/she learns to say, "Yes." It is easier to believe that God ignores us or God is mad at us than to believe God loves us.
Functions of the power of God unto salvation
It is the power to change people’s lives
We were dead in trespasses and sins. The wages of sin is death. Sin and depravity paints an ugly picture in the Bible and in real life. Read for yourself the first three chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Sinners need the Savior who can deliver us from our sins. I do not want to be reincarnated into a future life of sin and depravity. I want the power of the Gospel to change my life right now and be found with new life in Christ for now and eternity.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ reveals God’s way of righteousness. It is not a way determined by man, or by an external consideration, but by God. It is what is right, conformable to right, pertaining to right as God determines it to be right. God is the standard
The Time Element In Salvation
There is more. There is also a sense in which our salvation encompasses the three tenses of time: past, present, and future. We cannot have a full understanding of what is ours in Christ Jesus without grasping this important aspect of what it means to be saved.
Conclusively, Therefore, the gospel is the power that gives us victory over temptation to despair and to pride and to greed and to lust. The gospel alone can triumph over every obstacle and bring us to eternal joy. Whatever it costs, stand in it, hold it fast, believe on it, feed on it, savor it, count it more precious than silver or gold. The gospel will save you. And it alone.
Thanks for your time