Transcription
And this guy says, "I'm a Mormon and you're not." And uh, you know, you're an evangelical, so am I going to hell? And I looked at him and I said, you know, I'm going to answer that question the same way I would answer it if I was looking at a Jehovah's Witness, a Catholic, a fundamental Baptist, a Lutheran. I don't care. or fill in the blank. I don't care what your tradition is. I don't care what you believe about other things. It doesn't matter because the answer is always the same.
Salvation is the central theme of not only Jesus's ministry but of the Bible in its entirety. We as Christians toss this term around frequently. But how deeply have we examined its actual meaning and contemplated its implications for our own lives. Personally, as a child, I was taught about the dichotomy of the afterlife, heaven, and hell, and had a cartoonish view of what this meant in my head. So, I was under the impression that salvation as a whole was simply being rescued from eternal punishment and being rewarded with eternal comfort.
There's nothing wrong with this interpretation of the word salvation because after all, the literal definition of the word salvation is the state of being saved or protected from harm, danger, or a dire situation. And while being rescued from impending torment certainly is one aspect of salvation, the concept of the salvation that Jesus Christ offers is far deeper and more profound than just escaping hell and receiving the promise of heaven. Even more than just being saved from eternal punishment is the salvation from sin.
1 Peter 2:21-25 tells us, "Because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds, you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." Peter tells us that by Jesus's mighty work on the cross, he bore our sins in his body. And as his body passed away, so did our sins. But then he goes on to tell us that because of this, we too can die to sin and live to righteousness. It's an opportunity to overcome our past and become better, more capable bearers of God's image, to model our lives after Christ, the ultimate image bearer.
So the concept of being saved from sin can be divided into two categories. The turning away and repentance from sin, but also salvation from the repercussions of the sins we've already committed. In Romans 6:23, Paul tells us, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord."
But beyond this aspect of salvation, there's an even deeper meaning that we've yet to uncover in this study. While the concept of salvation certainly does encompass the deliverance from sin and the promise of eternal life, it's also an image of the kingdom of God descending to earth of Yahweh dwelling within us individually and as a whole. It's the ultimate redemption plan where God reinstates Eden. The end of the Bible is its beginning. And salvation is the movement between those two points in time. Salvation isn't one particular moment in time or an event that takes place in your life. It's the action of God rejoining his people the way he originally intended for mankind to exist. And with this in mind, it becomes much easier to understand that salvation isn't merit-based or performance-based. It isn't a moment when God suddenly makes us sinless and that we're never tempted to do wrong again for the rest of our lives or that we're perfect sinless humans forever afterward.
With this in mind, I want you to see this fascinating clip of Dr. Michael Heiser explaining what he called believing loyalty because he puts into context exactly what we're discussing here and it's absolutely beautiful. Let's check it out.
>> I want to start though with uh two anecdotes, two stories, whatever you want to call them. And I'm going to be upfront here. You're going to listen to these and we're going to go through a bunch of passages this morning and you're going to be wondering what in the world do these things have to do with each other. Okay? So again, I'm I'm telegraphing that. And I think you will see again how they do go together. My first story again this relates to I mean most of you sort of know who I am. I I work at Faith Life Logos. I'm a biblical scholar by training. Um, and one of the things that biblical scholars do every year is we go to our version of a geekfest. That is the annual meetings in November for biblical studies, theology, all that sort of thing. And one year, I think it's I think it's probably less than 10 years ago, I I went with the specific intention of meeting somebody. And this somebody was somebody I met online. I got an email one day that said, "Hey, you know, you need to go up go over to this this forum here on the internet because your view of Psalm 82, there's this guy in there defending it and then he's taking a beating. You know, people are are really after him." So, I Okay, I'll go look. So, I went and looked and sure enough, you know, they're this guy's trying to defend again what I think is pretty obviously the the correct way to look at the passage. And so I threw something in there and said, you know, hey, you know, ease up on this guy. You know, he's he's doing okay. You know, you know, lighten up essentially. And the next day I got an email from the guy taking the beating. And it turned out he was a professor at Brigham Y Young University. He was a Mormon. And we began a correspondence. And in the course of our correspondence, he he let it be known that yeah, you know, every year I go to the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. And I'm like, why? You know, you're [laughter] what are you doing there? And he he said to me, he goes, we depend on you guys. Because those of us over in Mormon land who care about biblical studies, we we really look for the evangelical scholars to produce things that we can learn from because, you know, we're just we're not so much into that. We do other things here. And I said, well, that's fascinating. I said, "As a matter of fact, this year in no, you know, this November, I'm going to be reading a paper critiquing Mormonism's understanding of Psalm 82 because I I don't agree with it." And he said, "I'm going to be there." And sure enough, he came. He came listened to the paper and, you know, had real nice things to say, and they they wound up he wound up asking to to publish it. [sighs] So that alone was was kind of interesting. But we went to lunch afterwards. And so there we there we are. You know, we get we get our lunch. We go find a table. We sit down. And he looks at me and he says, "Well, I have one question. I'm a Mormon and you are not. You're an evangelical. Am I going to hell?" Bonapetit. Just a nice way to begin begin your lunch there. Now, I imagine [clears throat] you'd like to hear what I what I said to him, correct? Right. You're going to have to wait. You're going to have to wait till the end of the sermon. Here's number two again. And these things are related even though they don't seem like it on the surface. I got an email. This was probably a month ago. And I I I occasionally get emails of people in theological distress and it it went like this. I'm not going to use his name, but dear Mike, will you consider covering divorce and remarage in your podcast? I am in torment over it. I've heard so many different views, all of which quote numerous verses. And now I'm not sure if I will lose my salvation or not if I get remarried. My ex-wife filed for divorce, not me. I never wanted it. My particular issue is that the likes of and then we insert famous preacher names would say that if I choose to remarry, I will become an adulterer since it is a present continuous relationship and therefore I will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. 1 Corinthians 6 9-10. There are people who have divorced their second spouse because they felt convicted they were adulterers. And the question really is, can I lose my salvation by getting remarried because I'm choosing to become an adulterer? Now, that's obviously a serious email, [cough] and I'm not going to tell you what I wrote back until the end of the sermon. It's another technique we use. [laughter]
Now, the the reason I I bring them both up is because the answer to both questions is exactly the same. It doesn't seem like it, but just trust me. The answer to both questions is exactly the same. Now, we began with the reading in second 2 Kings 5, and we'll get back there, but just to sort of recap the story real briefly and then go into our first passage in Luke. and they are connected. Um, you know, we know the story of Naaman the leper. One of the, you know, more familiar Sunday school stories that we hear as kids or that we tell kids in Sunday school. Again, Non's a big dude. He's an important guy. He's a Syrian. He has leprosy, which is of course a problem. And the little slave girl, you know, that ministers to his wife says, "Come on, dummy. You know, go down there to Israel and you'll get healed." And so he takes the trip. He winds up at the prophet's house. And if you notice, the prophet doesn't even come out to talk to him. Prophet stays in the house and sends somebody else to the door. Like he doesn't care who Naan is. You're not such a big guy. And the person says to Naamon, "Well, you know, go go dip yourself seven times in the Jordan and you'll be clean." And Naaman has a fit. He's angry, but he gets talked into doing it. And so he goes and he dips himself seven times in the Jordan and he's cleansed. He's healed. And then he goes back to Elisha and says, you know, now I know that, you know, there there's really no no God, you know, no true God anyway, um, in all the earth except for Yahweh of Israel. And he tries to give Elisha a present, you know, a gift in return. And Elisha says, 'N no, we don't need any of that. And then he says, 'Well, okay, would it be okay if I take two mule loads full of dirt back to Syria cuz I got to go home, you know, I got to show up for work Monday. And he's, you know, he explains a little bit about what why he wants that. You know, from this point on, I'm not going to sacrifice to any other god but Yahweh of Israel, but I I I have a question, Mr. Prophet. You know, part of my job is that I've got to go into the temple of Ramon with the king. And, you know, we get the picture that the king's kind of old, maybe he's a little feeble or or whatever, but he has to go in with the king. And he says, 'I I just want to know that if if while I'm in there, you know, when I when I bow down with the king, you know, to to Ramon, I want to know if that's okay. I want to know if you know what what Yahweh thinks of that. And what does Elisha say? Shalom. Peace. You're good. Now I would suggest that on its own terms and we're going to talk about this in in a few minutes that Naaman is a believer. He's saved in our parlance. And there's some there's an episode in the gospels that lends weight to that and I think nails it down. And that is in Luke chapter 4. We're actually going to read all three the episode in all three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But we're going to start in Luke here.
In Luke 4:16, this is the scene where Jesus preaches in his hometown. And he Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, 'Is not this Joseph's son. And he said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb. Physician, heal yourself. What we have heard you did at Capernium, do here in your own hometown as well." And he Jesus said,"Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up 3 years and 6 months, and a great famine came over all the land. And Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarapath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha. And none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian." When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And you know, we we miss a little bit about what the connection is, but they're angry. And they rose up and drove him out of out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which your town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went away.
Let's go to Matthew a second to get there. Matthew 13 53- 58. This is the same episode. We're going to get a little bit of a different flavor here. When Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there and coming to his hometown, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? Are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" and they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household. And he did not do," this is the key thought here, "he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief." Okay, store that away and go to Mark again. Same episode. Mark chapter 6. Verse one, he went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, and Joseph, and Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him? And Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them." And he marveled, he thought. He marveled because of their unbelief.
Now, why? Let's go back to the Luke passage. It's the only place in the New Testament that Naaman is mentioned by name. In conjunction with the widow of Zarapath, why is Jesus referencing these two people? Why do they get so angry when he does? Because Jesus is using them as templates, as perfect examples of faith. They were believers. They believed.
Let's go back to First Kings 17. Let's read the widow of Zerapath story. First Kings 17. We know Naaman believed because now I know there's no God on all the earth except in Israel. Okay? And that's a good example. Jesus approves of Naaman. But let's just, you know, throw the widow in here. The widow of Zerapath. First Kings 17:8. Then the word of the Lord came to him. This is Elijah. Arise, go to Zerapath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. So he arose and went to Zerapath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, "Bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink." And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, "Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." And she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son that we may eat it and die. This is all we got." And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear. Go and do as you have said, but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel, "The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth." So what does she do? She believes him. She went and did as Elijah said, and she and he and her household, ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
So Jesus showing up in the synagogue says, "Yeah, I hear all these nice things you're saying about how well I read and you've all heard about the things that I've done in Capernium and other places." And surely somebody here is going to say, "Hey, physician, heal yourself. Let's see some of those miracles that we heard about in Capernium. Can you do that here? And Jesus does do a few things, but he doesn't do what he could do and what he has done in the past. Why? He was just shocked at their unbelief. And to dig at them, he says, you know, there were lots of widows in the days of Elijah, but only one of them had enough to eat and drink. Only one of them got by, the one from Zarapath. And they know the story. They know their Bible. And there were lots of lepers in the days of Elisha, but only one of them was healed. Naaman, the Syrian. They know what those two people have in common. They had faith. And by using them as examples, Jesus is saying, "You people are pathetic. I'm shocked at your unbelief." And they get angry.
Now, that's all well and good, but I actually think even that misses something. What do the widow of Zerapath and Non the leper have in common? They are pagans. They are Gentiles. Naaman lives in Syria. The widow of Zerapath is in Sidon. This is Gentile territory. Why is that important? Jesus picks two people hopelessly cut off from any of the things that the Jews around him would think assist them in their salvation. They're not elect. They have no temple. They don't have a Bible. They're never, you know, let's just restrict our comments to Naaman. Naaman is never going to show up at temple. He is never going to read his Bible. He is never going to look at a psalm and think, "Well, this is probably the kind of prayer that Yahweh likes. I think I'll pray that." He doesn't have it. He's never going to observe a festival. He is never going to observe one of the feast days, one of the rituals. He's never going to be connected to the sacred calendar of Israel. And oh, by the way, he ain't getting circumcised either. In other words, he brings nothing to the table. He he he is totally emptyhanded. He brings nothing to the table. And he goes to Elisha. Here's his theology. Hey, I'm clean now. That's awesome. You know, now I know that there's really, you know, Yahweh is the true God. And from this point on, whenever I offer my own little sacrifice, and of course, Elisha doesn't jump in and say, "Oh, don't do that. You got to go to the temple. You're not going to do it right. Whenever I bring sacrifice, I'm only going to do it to Yahweh. Can I take some dirt back with me?" And then he has this question. He has this nagging doubt. I got to be honest with the Elisha. You know, part of my job is I got to go into this temple, this temple of this God who I no longer believe in. And I just want to know that when I go in there with the king and we do our little thing that we're supposed to do, how does Yahweh feel about that? In other words, will Yahweh look differently at his faith if he messes up theologically? Does Yahweh know his heart or not? I mean, that that that's really really where it's at. He's asking, "Look, when I do this, does Yahweh know that I know he is God? Does he know that? Does he know that I believe? And so what does Elisha say? You're good. You know, shalom. Go home.
So what's the point? What I want us to begin to see is we really need to look, I think, clearly and differently at faith, at grace. You know, these sorts of things. Naaman wants the prophet to know that even if he goes and goes off with the king to the temple of Ramon, his heart has not changed. He believes in the God of Israel alone. And he wants to know if God knows that. Will God look at me differently? He has no theology. He's never going to get any. He has no work to bring to the table at all. All he's got is his belief statement, his faith. That's it. I think Naaman is actually the perfect example. And I think there's a reason why Jesus endorses him as an example of faith and the widow at Zarapath because they're both pagans and they're both Gentiles. Unlike the Jews around him in the scene who can say, "Well, we're elect. You know, we got the temple. We're all circumcised. We're this, we're that, we do this, we do that." These two people can say nothing. And the implication is that's what counts. They have nothing to bring. They have no single point of merit about them at all. Their entire relationship to the true God, to the God of Israel, is based on believing that he is who he says he is. That's it.
Now, you could say, well, you know, the Israelites knew more. You know, they they had more information. They had the law. Well, you know, that was really important and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. But let me ask you a question. If God looks at two pagans and Jesus endorses this, because he uses them as an example of faith, if if God and Jesus look at two pagans and the only thing that matters is whose side are you on? Who is your God? Who do you believe in? Who do you trust? If it's good enough for two pagans, why isn't it good enough for an Israelite? I would suggest to you that it is. Now, we look at the Jews, and the Jews, of course, are going to trust in Torah, works, calendar, ritual, circumcision, all these things. And we know from the New Testament, Paul, you know, when he gets to talking about grace, he uses Abraham pre-law, pre-ircumcision, all this. He's trying to make the point it's by faith. Salvation is by faith. There is nothing in it. There there is there's no little sprinkle of merit, personal merit and performance has nothing to do with a right relationship to God. Not even election. Because people, oh, they were elect, you know, blah. Yeah. Well, if if you're thinking election is a synonym for salvation in Old Testament theology, you're wrong. It's easy to prove. It's this thing called the exile. Was Israel elect? Yeah. Israelites elect? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, most of the country, most of them go off and worship Baal and other gods. That's why we had the exile. We don't have Baal worshshiping Israelites in heaven. Okay? We have the exact opposite. This is why the relationship gets severed. Election just means that they were in a position to know who the true God was. They had the oracles of God as Paul likes to say. They had the truth and nobody else did. They still had to believe it. They still had to believe it. If they don't believe it, you go off and worship another god, forget it. This is why the what's the greatest commandment? Thou shalt love the Ly. You worship the Lord your God alone. No, you know, you bow down and worship no other. Okay, David. Okay, David's an Israelite. He's elect. He's the king. God's made a covenant with him. He commits some of the most heinous crimes that you can commit. But what he doesn't do is he never changes allegiance. There's never a question in his mind. David is he's ridiculous, okay? He's a parody, okay, of what a believer should be. He's ridiculous. He's awful, okay? But what he doesn't ever do is throw his allegiance to another God. He does just about everything else wrong. Okay? But he never does this. And God has mercy on him. Now, he pays for his sin in in the course of life. You know, you sow what you reap. But as far as his relationship with God, he's there. He worships no other. This is what God wants.
I think we need to start thinking about grace and salvation. I I like to use this phrase, believing loyalty. Believing loyalty. It has nothing to do with personal merit. I believe. And because I believe I am not going to worship, I am not going to follow another god or no god at all. I might not know anything beyond that. I might be like Naaman. I might flunk a theology quiz spectacularly and Naaman would have. [clears throat] But he knows who God is and that is where he is at. That is the end of the trail. He is not throwing his allegiance to any other. Period.
Now, I know again the reason that we're tracking on this and we're going to transition to New Testament a little bit. I know that Christians Christians struggle with the concept of grace. Okay, I did. You're not you're not going to be any different than I was. And you there just comes a point where you have to be able to grasp it. Lots of Christians believe and then they're troubled. You know, and you know, it's good to be sensitive to sin. Okay, we all understand that. But if you're thinking thoughts like, "Does God look at me the same way? Am I, you know, the guy with the with the the divorce thing? Am I going to lose my salvation? is is God as fond of me today in my spiritual defeat or in this habit I have or in this circumstance I've created for myself because my behavior is self-destructive. Does God look at me the same way? Am I still his? Am I still a child of God? Am I still going to get to heaven? I understand why those questions are asked, but if you're asking them and you're troubled by them, this is this is just factually where it's at. You do not understand the gospel. You do not understand grace because it has nothing to do at all with performance. Nothing. You do things like Naaman. Why does Naaman ask for dirt? Well, I got to add this to my faith so Yahweh will be happy with me. No, he does it because he believes. He does what he does because he believes. He doesn't do it to believe a little bit more. He doesn't do it again to stroke Yahweh. He just wants to know now, does the Lord know my heart? I got this job. I got to do this, but when I do it, does he know that I put nothing into it? I put I I don't believe in Ramon. Ramon's a jerk. You know, whatever. I don't believe in him at all. This is where my my believing loyalty is at. It's with him. Does Does Yahweh know that? And is like, yeah, he knows. You're good. He brings nothing to the table.
Now, when I became a Christian as a teenager, I I you know, big big true confession time here, I would have flunked a theology test, believe it or not. You could have asked me about the deity of Christ. I wouldn't have known what to say. What's that? You could have asked me about all sorts of doctrinal issues that you I hope not, but maybe you are that you are attaching to your status as a believer. Well, you don't believe that? I'm not sure if you're really saved if you don't believe in, you know, fill in the blank. Yeah. Yeah. I got news for you. I wouldn't have believed in any of it because I didn't know any of it. I knew one thing. Yeah. You know, I was naan. I got one thing right. Okay. And and that is sufficient. That is all God is interested in. Period. End of story. Now, he knows I'm a doofus. Okay? But that's all he cares about. Which side are you on? Believing loyalty. Are you wor is this your God? Are you going to go worship another or no God at all? Are you going to embrace Christ or something else or nothing at all? That's the question.
Now, this is actually consistent in the New Testament. Go to Romans 5. You know, we all know this passage. We all know this passage, but we I think we need to think about a little bit more. Romans 5, we're going to read verses 6-8. I can find it here. Romans 5 verses 6-8. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person. Though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Now, notice not only what the passage says, but notice what it doesn't say. Let me give you a few examples here. It doesn't say while we were cleaning up our act, Christ died for us. While we were correcting our theology, Christ died for us. While we were regular in prayer, Christ died for us. While we were faithful in reading scripture, Christ died for us. Doesn't say any of this. While we were attending church regularly, Christ died for us. While we were having more spiritual victories than losses, Christ died for us. You can fill in the blank. While we while we were not cheating on our spouses, Christ died for us. While we weren't doing XYZ, bad thing, Christ died. It doesn't say any of that. In fact, it says the exact opposite. Couple paraphrases here. While we were wicked, while we were alienated from God, because we wanted to live the way we wanted to live, because we didn't want God or anyone else telling us we couldn't have or do what we wanted, then Christ died for us. While we were contemptable human beings, Christ died for us while we shook our fist at God. while we couldn't have cared less. Okay, Christ died for us. While we didn't believe or even knew that we should believe, Christ died for us. As soon as you insert any point of merit into that passage and any point of merit into the Naaman story, you defile the gospel. You don't comprehend it. You just don't and I know it's hard again even as a as a Christian because you are sensitive to sin your mind keeps going back to this question how does God look at me how does God you know is it still the same you know look while you were a contemptable human being while you didn't even know you should believe Christ died for us it doesn't say anything that you might be concerned about in the verse so let the verse go this is All you need. It's all Naaman had. Again, catch the point. Naaman brings nothing to the table. He will never get circumcised. He will never know what the law of God says or if he's violating it. He will never go to a feast. He'll never go to a festival. He'll never hit the temple. He'll never, you know, like pray the or sing the psalms or what. He won't do anything except he believes that Yahweh is the true God. And when he does offer sacrifices, oh, you should use the priesthood for that. That's defiling, you know, the ritual washings. Elisha could have cared less because he knows God could have cared less because that isn't the question. The question is not, did you dip in the labor, okay? The question is whose side are you on? And naan had that answer. That's all he had. Period. And that is how we need to look. Not just in terms of a theology lesson. How were people saved before Jesus? Okay. No, this is about you. Okay. This is about us understanding what the gospel is and is not.
Now, back at our academic conference, I'm sitting there with my fork in my hand, and this guy says, "I'm a Mormon, and you're not." And uh, you know, you're an evangelical, so am I going to hell? And I looked at him and I said, 'You know, I'm going to answer that question the same way I would answer it if I was looking at a Jehovah's Witness, a Catholic, a fundamental Baptist, a Lutheran. I don't care. Fill in the blank. I don't care what your tradition is. I don't care what you believe about other things. It doesn't matter because the answer is always the same. I don't care what you are. If you can look me in the eye, this is the way I said it to him. If you can look me in the eye and say to me that my hope for salvation, the forgiveness of my sins, my hope for eternal life is based entirely on what Jesus did on the cross. And I bring no merit at all to the issue. No works, no performance, nothing. If I can say that I believe that exclusively what Jesus did on the cross is is how my sins are forgiven and my hope of eternal life. If you can look me in the eye and say that you're in. If you can't, you're not. That's just the way it is. Now, I might, you know, and we talked you a little bit after. I mean, I might think that your theology is goofy. Hey, my theology was goofy when I got saved. Okay, when I became a believer. Some people would say, "Your theology is still goofy, Mike." Okay, [clears throat] I get that. But that isn't the question. The question is not, can you articulate this point of doctrine to my satisfaction or to the satisfaction of somebody who wrote XYZ creed? That is not the question. The question is upon what are you basing forgiveness of sins and eternal life? It has nothing to do with merit at all. And he looked at me and he said, "I'm not completely sure, but I think I can say that." And at that point, I'm not going to look at the guy and say, "Well, you must be a liar because you're a Mormon. No, I'm going to look at the guy and think, I sure hope so, because that's the gospel. That's what you need to focus on. You know, maybe next year we can have some theological discussion, but this is the question today. And the and the question and the answer is going to be the same no matter who you are. I don't care what you are. Can you say this or not?
Now, as far as the email, here's part of what I wrote back. Dear XYZ, the fact that you're not sure whether you'll lose your salvation over a divorce and remarage makes me wonder if you understand the gospel. Salvation cannot be earned. It was extended to sinners, not to people in the process of cleaning up their act. Romans 5:8. Consequently, that which cannot be earned by moral perfection, okay? Salvation is not of works and we're not we're never going to be perfect. So, it's all it's totally out of reach. That which cannot be earned by moral perfection cannot be lost by moral imperfection. And to bring it down to the divorce, salvation wasn't earned by getting married, so it cannot be lost by getting divorced and remarried. And then I added a few things about, you know, his situation, but he wrote back and said that was helpful. Now, we can look at that and say, I mean, look, dude, you're in a church? You know, you're in a How did you not know this? It's difficult. It's difficult to surrender any sense of merit in part because we're sensitive, you know, to sin. But you got to get over the hump that God looks at you based on something you do. This is not how your relationship started. Okay? Christ didn't die for you while you were in the process of cleaning up your life. While you were in the process of learning to articulate the hypothatic union and the depth of the incarnation. Okay? He ain't waiting around for that. He died for you while you were yet a sinner. That's it. Period. Exclamation point. Really, that's what you need to grasp. And again, I know Christians who just struggle with this. No different than me, no different than anybody else who, you know, who, you know, has sort of come to grips with what grace is.
>> This was absolutely amazing. We don't earn salvation. We don't gain salvation by being in the right denomination, understanding the Bible, or by believing the right set of doctrines. We're saved by believing in Jesus. It's really that simple. Probably the most famous passage in all of scripture, John 3:16, tells us, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." It's really all about Jesus. He's the focal point of salvation. All we have to do is believe in and love him with our whole hearts and we're saved. And each one of us believing in him brings the kingdom of God here to earth where he indwells us and leads us to change the world one moment, one action at a time. And this is how the fruit of our salvation begins to grow. As we continue in salvation, Jesus is able to continue his earthly mission of bringing the kingdom of God here to earth through us. Acts 17:28 tells us, [snorts] "In him we live and move and have our being." As we continue to move and live in him and him in us, the kingdom of God spreads and inches us closer to the eternal promise of what we like to call heaven. And the list goes on of what we're actually saved from. Jesus saved us from eternal judgment. He saved us from the second death. He saved us from sin. He saved us from being under the authority of the powers and principalities of this world. He saved us from the figurative chaos and destruction of the sea. He saved us from the three-fold fall that led to the depravity of this world. And ultimately, he saved us from being separated from him. And he saved us so he can be with us at all times. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. But at any rate, I pray that this video has been a blessing to you. And if you've made it this far, please like this video, subscribe to Dance Like David, and leave a comment that says, "Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of salvation." As any interaction with this video allows our content to reach and help more people. [music] And may God shine his face upon you and give you peace. >> [music] >> Heat. Hey, Heat.