All this week, we
will be looking at our salvation. Our key idea this week is this: I believe a
person comes into a right relationship with God by God’s grace through faith in
Jesus. Christ.
I hope all who
read this foundational belief do in fact have salvation. When I was a youth
minister, a teenage boy came to Christ and went home and told his father that
he had been saved. The father, unimpressed and unexcited by the news,
responded, “Saved from what?”
The boy did not
know how to respond. I fear that many Christians today do not know exactly from
what we have been saved, for what we are being saved, and to where we will be
saved.
Last week we saw
that we have a personal God who passionately cares for us, purposefully plans
for us and prioritizes His good for us. Now that we know who God is (week one)
and believe that God knows us (week two), we need to see what type of
relationship we can have with this God.
Our salvation
comes by God’s grace. What do we mean by grace? “Grace” is most commonly
thought of as saving grace, as seen in our memory verse, “For it is by grace that you have been saved,
through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by
works, so that no one can boast.”
As we study about
salvation this week, however, I hope that we all come to a deeper understanding
that salvation and God’s grace is so much more than simply avoiding hell or
going to heaven. And foundational to salvation is grace.
Grace has at its
very core the word which is frequently described as “unmerited favor.” Even
more simply it is “undeserved blessing.” It has been explained with as “God’s
Riches At Christ’s Expense.” And in relation to our salvation, we see that
there are at least three types of grace.
Types Of Grace:
Saving Grace is initialized at our justification. This is
our salvation from the penalty of sin.
Sustaining Grace is realized in our sanctification. This is
our salvation from the power of sin.
Supreme Grace is finalized at our glorification. This is our
salvation from the presence of sin.
Hopefully by the end of this week, and the end of this
chapter 3 in BELIEVE, we will see exactly what we are saved from, what we are
saved for, and where we are saved to. (Sorry about splitting the infinitives!)
