"Not all who say to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father who is heaven." Jesus says this at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. He would recognize during his short ministry what true belief in God is, and what is not true. He would speak to the reality that there are believers and unbelievers - a doctrine many take offense to. Some teach that you can come to belief in Jesus on your own will and by your own standards. That certain rituals or performance commitments ensure your salvation.
But is that Biblical? Does the revelation of God - His Holy Word - support that premise? Sadly, no. For if we believe we can save ourselves through sheer determination, what was the purpose of Jesus' horrific death on the cross?
A question was raised recently on salvation and what the Bible says about it. Following are some thoughts I shared.
When Romans 1:16 and Ephesians 1:13 refer to God’s Word – which as we believe was written by the Holy Spirit and is alive and powerful (Hebrews 4:12) – when he refers to God’s Word as the ‘gospel of your salvation’, that is exactly what is meant. It is the Spirit’s role to move in our lives – those of us who have been predestined for salvation - before we come to the promised moment of salvation, that initial act of sanctification, to, as it were, plow the path for us who have been chosen by God before the foundation of the world towards our salvation. Everything that happened in our lives before we believed has happened at God’s direction to lead us to that moment. At God’s appointed time He introduced to us the saving message from God’s Holy Spirit-written word. He created the circumstances for us to hear it for what it truly is. We may have been blessed to have heard God’s Word read to us while growing up, or we may not really have heard the Word or read it until we got older. Everyone’s experience is unique. However God plans it, the Spirit carries out that implanting of the salvific Gospel into the person’s heart. This does not mean the person is indwelt at that point, because God cannot live in unbelievers (persons who have not yet accepted Christ – e.g., see Psalm 15). Yet, Almighty God is not limited in how He executes His plans (Isaiah 55:7-11): He is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent and He wills what He wills. So at the right time, the Spirit-written Word of God begins action in and on our hearts – the center of our wills, and makes it possible for us to come to a saving knowledge (which implies that anyone can read the Bible, but if the Spirit is not active in causing a change in our hearts then there is no saving knowledge). See Romans 10:8-10, 14-17. The scripture we read the other night at John 1:12-13 confirms that same transaction as illustrated in the Romans passage – we receive the Word, then by the power of the Spirit-written salvific Gospel, we can believe on Jesus’ name, i.e., His personhood and all that He represents as the Gospel of our Salvation. When we ask God to save us based on the blood of Christ and repent of our sins and especially the sin of rejecting Christ, in that instant our salvation transaction takes place. We become the true children of God in that instant, in that moment. The Holy Spirit is then placed within us – and because the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity, all of whom God is lives in us (see Jesus’ words at John 14:10, 15-24).
In Acts we see affirming accounts where persons only became sealed with the Holy Spirit after they believed. In Acts 8:4-8, 14-17 Philip has been sent to Samaria to proclaim the Gospel and several believed. Note that, within the couple of decades following Jesus’ resurrection, the Holy Spirit made Himself manifest or made others aware of His presence and power and deity often in dramatic ways to prove to those watching that God has shown His saving favor on certain individuals. In this account of the Samaritans, God chose to have Peter and John visibly lay hands on the Samaritans as a means of indwelling His Spirit within those believers. A similar account is in Acts 10 and 11 concerning the salvation that came to Cornelius and his household. Cornelius was a devout Gentile believer through Judaism – he followed the Jewish worship practices and read the prophets, and showed mercy and grace to many. At God’s appointed time, the time for ‘grafting’ in Gentiles into the family of Christ, God sent an angel to confirm Cornelius’ prayers of seeking the true God and had him send for Peter. He obeys and after God has retrained Peter about His plan of salvation of the Gentiles, the messengers arrive to bring Peter to Cornelius, at which time Peter shares the Gospel with him and his household and when God ‘hears’ the conviction in Cornelius’ and the others’ hearts, immediately they receive the baptism and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Peter retells the story in chapter 11 and specifically notes: “15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”
Thus, that moment, that instant, when our hearts believe and confess Jesus as our Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit who comes to live in us and makes His home in us so that we can become transformed into the image of Christ, we can live Christ’s life in us, to draw us closer and into greater intimacy with God (Romans 8:9-10, 14-17). Only God knows what it took Him doing in our lives to bring us to that moment. Some of us have had to go through traumatic events or circumstances, or have been deceived into believing we can become free through sexual immorality and other lusts, or may have been defining our lives as good because of the nice things we do, or our church attendance and giving, and the like (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). At God’s appointed time for us – each of us individually – at a point in our lives that He brings us to, He has made it possible by His grace – His riches through Christ to bless us though we deserve His curse – for us to willingly believe on Christ and be saved and sanctified. Then seals that transaction (Christ’s blood for our believing faith which we receive from Him) by indwelling us with His Holy Spirit as a guarantee and a Guarantor of our salvation. As we are seeing and will be seeing in the study guide (Relying on the Holy Spirit) in the present Lesson, the sanctification process begins with the indwelling of the Spirit and continues on throughout our earthly life.
This is a story I love telling, and like retelling to myself because it so reaffirms who I am in Christ – thank you for that opportunity. So I hope this was helpful to you, too. Please feel free to ask me any questions
